Steam Turbine Power Plant: Submitted by Safa Omardeen 808000383 Submitted On March 12, 2008

STEAM TURBINE POWER PLANT
Submitted by
Safa Omardeen
808000383
Submitted on
March 12th, 2008.
SUMMARY
This experiment involved the use of the steam turbine power plant apparatus. The purpose of
performing this experiment was to calculate the overall efficiency of the plant as well as the
Rankine cycle efficiency. This experiment acted as a simple simulation to that of a large
steam turbine power plant which generates electricity commercially.
APPARATUS
The RankineCycler Steam Turbine Power System was used to conduct this experiment. This
system consists of the following component:
1. Boiler
2. Turbine
3. Cooling Tower
4. Generator
5. Feed Pump
Boiler
The boiler is a chambered vessel consisting of two sections. One section is used to convert
wet liquid into a saturated vapor. The saturated vapor is then super-heated for the operation
of the turbines which are intended for generating electricity. To facilitate these conversions,
fuel or geothermal energy is utilized for the production of the steam phase.
Turbine:
After the steam phase, the super-heated vapour is channeled onto a giant fan in a
sealed compartment known as the turbine. The super heated vapour causes the turbine’s
bladed fan to rotate. This is the first step in the generation of electricity.
Cooling Tower:
Since a rotating movement is established, all or most of the steam’s energy is
converted to kinetic energy necessary for moving the fan’s blades. It is then sent to a
designated cooling tower in a wet vapor form. Here the vapor is condensed to its liquid form
at low pressure and it is circulated to act either as a coolant for the machinery or further raw
materials in the production of steam.
Generator:
The generator comprises of a pair of large magnets and stationed between magnets is
a shaft connected to a coil and the rotating blades. As the blades rotate as a result of steam
induced energy, the shaft causes the coil to cut the magnetic field producing a current and an
induced voltage. The voltage can then be enhanced by use of transformers allowing for
distribution for commercial use.
Feed Pump:
This device acts as the transportation module for the experiment. It is utilized in
transporting the condensed liquid from the cooling towers back towards the boilers. It is
necessary since the lowered pressure the condensed liquid requires an increase in pressure to
re-enter the boilers. Hence the need for the pump arises.
THEORY
The Rankine cycle consists of the following main processes:
 1–2
Super-cooled liquid enters the boiler at 1. Between 1 and 2, the liquid is converted from a
saturated liquid to a saturated vapour mixture, while the pressure and temperature remain
constant and vapour itself gains energy hence entropy increases.
 2–3
The saturated vapour enters the condenser at 3. The condensation of the vapour to a
saturated vapour with some liquid occurred thus removing heat from the system. Even
though the mixture itself experienced a decrease in temperature during this conversion,
there was no heat transfer, only work, at the turbine (assuming ideality), thus accounting
for the constant entropy experienced.
 3–4
The mixture leaves the condenser and enters the cooling column (in an ideal system). The
pressure and temperature both remain constant and the mixture is converted to a saturated
liquid with some vapour. However, because of this conversion to a saturated liquid heat
was lost to surroundings reflecting a reduction in entropy.
 4–5
The saturated liquid enters the feed pump after being recycled from the condenser. The
temperature and pressure increase up until a certain point and then remain constant for
gradual reintroduction into the boiler, where the boiling process actually takes place.
However the entropy increases throughout the process between 4 and 1 since heat is
being supplied to convert the saturated liquid with small quantities of vapour to a super-
cooled nature.
 5-1
The super-cooled liquid eventually reaches the boiler once more. As a result the
conversion to a super-heated vapour and further more to a saturated vapour is
accomplished. With this major quantity of energy supplied the temperature, pressure, and
entropy all rose as the process repeats itself.
Figure 1 shows a schematic of the system and figure 2 shows the graph of temperature versus
entropy.
Efficiency of any working system is a measure of the ratio of the useful energy output
to the total energy input. In this system, the overall efficiency is given by:
Overall Plant Efficiency = Electrical Power Output
Fuel Power
OR, in other terms
 GeneratorV  I 
Overall Plant Efficiency =   …(1)
 VolumeFlow Rate    CV 
while, the Rankine cycle efficiency is given by:

 h1  h2 
Rankine cycle efficiency =   …(2)
 h1  h3 
where h1, h2 and h3 are the enthalpy values at stages 1, 2 and 3 (of the temperature-
entropy diagram) respectively.
Thus, by utilizing equations (1) and (2), the efficiency of the Steam Turbine Power
Plant under observation can be determined.
RESULTS
CALCULATIONS
Electrical Power output = Generator (voltage × current)
= 6 × 0.6
= 3.6 Watts
Fuel power = Mass flow rate of fuel × Calorific Value
= (Volume flow rate of fuel × Density) × CV
CV of commercial LPG = 50 MJ/kg

Density of fluid = 2.2 kg/m3
Volume flow rate = 5.5 liters per minute
= 9.17 x 10-5 m 3 s 1
Fuel power = (9.17 x 10-5) (2.2) (50×106)

= 10087
Overall plant efficiency = (Electrical power output/Fuel power) x 100

= (0.36/10 087) × 100
= 0.0036%
Ranking cycle efficiency= (h1-h2)/ (h1-h3)

Steam Turbine Power Plant: Submitted by Safa Omardeen 808000383 Submitted On March 12, 2008

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STEAM TURBINE POWER PLANT

while, the Rankine cycle efficiency is given by:

CV of commercial LPG = 50 MJ/kg

Fuel power = (9.17 x 10-5) (2.2) (50×106)

Overall plant efficiency = (Electrical power output/Fuel power) x 100

Ranking cycle efficiency= (h1-h2)/ (h1-h3)

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