Thermodynamics

ME 2105
Credit: 4.0
Vapor Power Cycles
Presented By

Md. Shariful Islam

Lecturer
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Khulna University of Engineering & Technology
 A Thermodynamic Cycle consists of a series of thermodynamic
processes transferring heat and work, while varying pressure,
temperature, and other state variables, eventually returning a
system to its initial state.

Thermodynamic
Cycle
Thermodynamic cycles can be primarily classified based on
their utility such as for power generation, refrigeration etc. Based
on this thermodynamic cycles can be categorized as;
Power cycles,
Refrigeration and heat pump cycles.
 Thermodynamic cycles which are used in devices producing
power are called power cycles.
Power production can be done by using working fluid either in
vapour form or in gaseous form.
When vapour is the working fluid then they are called vapour
power cycles, whereas in case of working fluid being gas these
Power Cycles are called gas power cycles.
Thus, power cycles shall be of two types,
Vapour power cycle,
Gas power cycle.
 Vapour Power Cycle Gas Power Cycle
Carnot cycle Carnot cycle
Rankine cycle Otto cycle
Reheat cycle Diesel cycle
Regenerative cycle Dual cycle
Power Cycles Stirling cycle
Ericsson cycle
Brayton cycle
 The cycles to be considered have two characteristics in
common:
The working fluid is a condensable vapour which is
Characteristics in the liquid phase during part of the cycle and
of Vapor The cycle consists of a succession of steady-flow
processes, with each process carried out in a separate
Power Cycles component specially designed for the purpose.
 If the rates of flow of mass and energy through the
control surface change with time, the mass and energy
within the control volume also would change with time.
‘Steady flow’ means that the rates of flow of mass and
energy across the control surface are constant.
At the steady state of a system, any thermodynamic
property will have a fixed value at a particular location,
Steady-Flow and will not alter with time.
‘Steady state’ means that the state is steady or invariant
Process with time.
 For negligible change in kinetic and potential energies
through the control volume
Steady-Flow
Process If the control volume is well insulated (i.e. adiabatic),
then, q = 0
  Boiler
 Turbine
 Condenser
 Pump/Compressor

Components
of Vapor
Power Cycles
 Working fluid being used in vapour power cycles must have
following desirable properties. Generally water is used as
working fluid in vapour power cycles as it is easily available in
abundance and satisfies most of requirements. Other working
fluids may be mercury, Sulphur dioxide and hydrocarbons etc.
Working fluid should be cheap and easily available.
Desired Working fluid should be non-toxic, non-corrosive and
chemically stable.
Thermodynamic Working fluid density should be high so that the size of plant
becomes smaller.
Properties Of Working fluid should have it’s critical temperature within
Working Fluid metallurgical limits.
Fluid must have higher saturation temperature at moderate
pressures as it shall yield high efficiency because most of heat
will be added at high temperature. Thus, mean temperature of
heat addition shall be high even at moderate pressure.
 Working fluid should have
smaller specific heat so that
sensible heat supplied is
negligible and Rankine
cycle approaches to Carnot
cycle. In case of fluid having
Desired small specific heat hatched
portion shown in Figure will
Thermodynamic be absent or minimum.
Properties Of Saturated vapour line should be steep enough so that
state after expansion has high dryness fraction.
Working Fluid It should show significant decrease in volume upon
condensation.
Working fluid should have it’s freezing point much
below atmospheric pressure so that there is no chance of
freezing in condenser.
 Overall Thermal Efficiency: Whatever the source of
energy, the overall thermal efficiency of a vapor cycle
plant is suitably assessed by the proportion of latent
energy available in the source, which is converted into
useful mechanical work.
This overall efficiency can be expressed as the product of
Performance two efficiencies:
Overall Efficiency=Cycle Efficiency × Combustion Efficiency
Parameters Combustion Efficiency: expresses the proportion of the available
energy transferred as heat to the working fluid.
Cycle Efficiency: expresses the proportion of this heat which is
converted into mechanical work.
 Why Cycle Efficiency is not Unity?

H.E

Performance Thermodynamic:
Parameters
Practical:

Rogers:207/208 Page(4th Ed)

Performance
Parameters
Rogers
Performance 

Parameters
 Carnot cycle is an ideal cycle having highest thermodynamic
efficiency. Let us use Carnot cycle for getting positive work
with steam as working fluid. Arrangement proposed for using
Carnot vapour power cycle is as follows.
1 – 2 = Reversible isothermal heat addition in the boiler
2 – 3 = Reversible adiabatic expansion in steam turbine
3 – 4 = Reversible isothermal heat rejection in the condenser
Carnot Vapor 4 – 1 = Reversible adiabatic compression or pumping in feed
water pump
Power Cycle
Carnot Vapor 

Power Cycle
Carnot Vapor 
Example 11.2 (Rogers):
Power Cycle Recalculate example 11.1 with
isentropic efficiencies of 0.8 for
compression and expansion
processes, to estimate the actual
cycle efficiency and steam
consumption.
 Effect of Condenser Pressure on Carnot efficiency
Lowest possible
temperature of
condensing steam is
governed by two factor:

Carnot Vapor First, temperature of

Power Cycle sink(150C)
Second, temperature
difference for the heat
transfer.
Practical condensing
temperature 250C to
300C(0.032-0.042 bar)
Rogers
 Effect of Boiler Pressure on Carnot efficiency and SSC
Maximum possible
temperature of working
fluid is governed by
strength of the
material(boiler tube,
Carnot Vapor turbine blade).
The metallurgical limit may
Power Cycle be assumed 600oC to 650oC
for steam plant at present.
But for a carnot cycle
highest possible
temperature is critical
state Tc= 374.15oC and
Rogers pc= 221.2 bar
 Reasons Why The Carnot Cycle Is Not Used Practice?
It has low work ratio
Because of practical difficulties associated with the compression. It
would be difficult to control the condensation process so that it stopped at
state 4, and then carry out the compression of very wet vapour efficiently.
The liquid tends to separate out from the vapour and the pump would
have to deal with a non-homogeneous mixture.

Carnot Vapor The volume of fluid is high and the pump/compressor would be
comparable in size and cost with the turbine. It is on the other hand
Power Cycle comparatively easy to condense the vapor completely and compress the
liquid to boiler pressure in a small feed pump.

Rogers
 Between same operating
temperature efficiency of
rankine cycle is less than carnot
efficiency.
Comparing area of two cycles,
net work output is greater in
rankine cycle. So ssc is less and
Rankine work ratio is greater.
Cycle So, in spite of lower ideal cycle
efficiency, the actual cycle
efficiencies may not be so
different, and size of rankine
plant will certainly be much
smaller.

Rogers Comparison between Carnot cycle and Rankine Cycle

 Problem 11.3 (Rogers): Calculate the cycle efficiency, work
ratio and steam consumption of the rankine cycle, working
between the same pressure as the carnot cycle in example 11.1.
Estimate the actual cycle efficiency and ssc when the isentropic
efficiencies of the expansion and compression processes are each
0.80.

Rankine
Cycle
 Effect of Boiler Pressure on Rankine cycle efficiency and SSC

Rankine
Cycle

Rogers Self Study

 Rankine Cycle with Superheat
Metallurgical limit cannot be
approached, when the steam
leaves the boiler.
By placing a superheater, it is
possible to raise the steam
temperature, without raising
boiler pressure.
Rankine Average temperature at which
heat is supplied is increased by
Cycle superheating and hence ideal
cycle efficiency is increased.
In case of work ratio,
superheating makes little
difference.
This compensated by reduction
of size of the plant.

Rogers
Rankine 

Cycle
Rankine 

Cycle
Rankine 

Cycle
 Effect of Superheating on the performance of
the Rankine cycle

Rankine
Cycle

Rogers
 Why Superheating is always used in practice
In un-superheated cycle, with higher boiler pressure the turbine
exhaust would become even wetter.
Rankine This is very undesirable feature, because droplets in the steam
erode the blading and reduce the turbine isentropic efficiency.
Cycle In practice the dryness fraction at turbine exhaust is not allowed
to fall below about 0.88.

Rogers
 When boiler pressure is fixed in Superheated
Rankine Cycle?
“When the condenser temperature, superheat temperature and
steam quality at exit from the turbine is fixed, the boiler pressure
is also fixed.”

Rankine
Cycle

PK Nag(Page 426 3rd Ed)

 Problem: Steam at 20 bar, 360°C is expanded in a steam
turbine to 0.08 bar. It then enters a condenser, where it is
condensed to saturated liquid water. The pump feeds back
the water into the boiler,
(a) Assuming ideal processes, find per kg of steam the
net work and the cycle efficiency,
Rankine (b) If the turbine and the pump have each 80%
Cycle efficiency, find the percental reduction in the net
work and cycle efficiency.

PK Nag(example 12.2 3rd Ed)

 Problem: A cyclic steam power plant is to be
designed for a steam temperature at turbine inlet of
360°C and an exhaust pressure of 0.08 bar. After
isentropic expansion of steam in the turbine, the
moisture content at the turbine exhaust is not to
exceed 15%. Determine the greatest allowable
Rankine steam pressure at the turbine inlet, and calculate the
Rankine efficiency for these steam conditions.
Cycle Estimate also the mean temperature of heat
(Assignment) addition.

PK Nag(example 12.3 3rd Ed)

 Reasons for Considering Rankine Cycle as an
Ideal Cycle For Steam Power Plants
It is very difficult to build a pump that will handle a mixture of
liquid and vapor and deliver saturated liquid to boiler. It is much
easier to completely condense the vapor and handle only liquid
in the pump.
Rankine In the Rankine cycle, the vapor may be superheated at constant
Cycle pressure without difficulty. In a Carnot cycle using superheated
steam, the superheating will have to be done at constant
temperature, which is very difficult. During this process, the
pressure has to be dropped. This means that heat is transferred to
the vapor as it undergoes expansion doing work. This is difficult
to achieve in practice.
Rankine 

Cycle

Details: PK Nag
 Rankine cycle on p-v, T-s and h-s diagrams

Rankine
Cycle
 Thank You

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4/30/2019 Md. Shariful Islam, Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KUET 39