Thermal and Fluid Engineering: Power Cycles
Thermal and Fluid Engineering: Power Cycles
Thermal and Fluid Engineering: Power Cycles
Thermodynamic Cycles
Thermodynamic cycles can be categorized in different ways such as: Power or refrigeration cycle: power cycle delivers net power output while refrigeration effect is produced in the other cycle. Gas cycle and vapor cycle: in gas cycle the working substance remains in gaseous phase throughout the cycle while in vapor cycles the working fluid remains vapor in one part and changes into liquid in other part of the cycle.
Thermodynamic Cycles
Open and close cycles: in closed cycle the working fluid comes to initial state and is recirculated while in open cycle the working fluid is renewed at the end of the cycle instead of being re-circulated. Power cycles are divided into internal combustion and external combustion power cycles. Steam is the most common working fluid for vapor power cycles.
Some Impracticalities
Isothermal heat transfer to or from a two-phase is easy as the saturation temperature limits the temperature by fixing the pressure in the device. In single phase however it is difficult to accomplish the isothermal heat transfer. When the temperature is limited by two-phase at critical point (because it will be single phase then) then isothermal heat transfer will be difficult to achieve.
Some Impracticalities
The isentropic process is accomplished by a turbine. In this process however, the quality of steam decreases. Turbine will have to handle wet steam which can be harmful due to impingement of liquid droplets on turbine blades. This will cause erosion and wear of turbine blades.
Some Impracticalities
Isentropic compression is difficult. Its not easy to control the condensation process precisely so that steam ends up with a required quality at state 4 (because saturated liquid is needed at this state). Its not easy to design a compressor which can handle two-phase mixture.
Rankine Cycle
The impracticalities can be handled and resolved by superheating the steam completely and condensing the steam completely in the condenser. The resulting cycle is called Rankine cycle. Rankine cycle is an ideal cycle for vapor power cycles.
Rankine cycle involves following four processes: Process 1-2: isentropic compression in a pump Process 2-3: constant pressure heat addition in a boiler Process 3-4: isentropic expansion in a turbine Process 4-1: constant pressure heat rejection in a condenser.
Rankine Cycle
Rankine Cycle
Thermal efficiency is also defined as the ratio of area enclosed by cycle on Ts diagram to the area under heat addition process.