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[mathi]

In my current fortress I am building a huge magma pumping stack. To at least acknowledge the laws of physics I decided against building a set of Dwarven Water Reactors and opted for a system of waterwheels that uses two aquifers that are located in my hill on different levels. It starts at a double aquifer at Z+1 and Z 0:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

Z+1:
WWWW
A7.W
A7.W
A7.W
A7.W
A7.W
WWWW
Z 0:
                 *---*
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW|Wd
WA7FFGFFXF___.WW[|]_
WA7WWWWWWW___WWW_|__
WA7FFGFFXF___.WW[|]_
WA7WWWWWWW___WWW_|__
WA7FFGFFXF___.WW[|]_
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Z-1:
                     *
            WWWWWWdWW|Wd
            W_FF___.[|]_
            WWWW___._|__
            W_FF___.[|]_
            WWWW___._|__
            W_FF___.[|]_
            WWWWWWWWWWWWW
Z-2:
                  WWWWWWdWWWWWWWWWWW
                  W777F777777D7777FA
                  WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
                  W777F777777D777FA
                  WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
                  W777F777777D77777FA
                  WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW



W: Wall
A: Aquifer with fortifications
7: Floor with water
_: Dry floor
.: Open space
F: Fortifications
X: Closed floodgate
G: Wall grate
[|]: Running waterwheel, hanging over open space
|: Horizontal powered axle
-: Horizontal powered axle
d: Door
D: Lever operated closed door
*: Active gear assembly


The real implementation is much more extensive with a total of 30 waterwheels.
The pumping stack is connected to one of the gear assemblies. Once I checked it was working (at that moment I didn't realize that only 15 wheels were supplying power) I turned off the water stream by closing the floodgates at level Z 0. Right now there is no stream of water running (tiles are 1 water or dry) and the wheels are still running with 1500 power output. Although i am not really complaining, I am curious if anybody has experienced the same situation of running water wheels without running water.

So far I assume this is a result of the two aquifers that have an invisible "stream" running between them, but more experimentation might give more insight.

[Sphalerite]

I have seen a situation in the past where water once connected to a river would always been considered to be flowing for the purpose of powering water wheels, even if the connection to the river was blocked off permanently.  The logic which DF uses to determine when water is flowing is quite buggy.

[MagmaMcFry]

Needs exploiting!

[Di]

This is inertia 
They'll stop eventually stopping time seems random.

[andyman564]

've had the same happen with one of my dwarven reactors. i shut off the screw pump intakes, the water was no longer being circulated, and the blasted thing kept on churning out power indefinitely!  even after being stopped via power overload, (and left for several months) it started back up on it's own when the overload system was disconnected.

[jwest23]

I currently have a reactor that was bucket-filled to 4/7.  It was a standard double reactor; two wheels attached to a single pump.  As the water level approached 4/7 I noticed the system was in motion.  Groovy. 

Like andyman564 describes, I accidentally overloaded the system and locked it.  I left it engaged like that for some time, though not several months, before finding the issue.

It turned out that only one of the wheels attached to the pump was producing power even though they were both in the same dwarfmade pond.  I opened the intake hatch and had a dwarf pump manually for a few moments.  I stopped the pumping and closed the intake hatch.  The water settled back down to 4/7 across the entire pond and now both wheels produce power without any outside help.

The flow algorithm is odd, for sure.

[Triaxx2]

Water reactors are a bit odd. I tend to connect them so that a single reactor powers the next, which powers a further reactor and so on. Multiple reactors to generate exponential amounts of power. It does get a little excessive after a bit.