IDEAL RANKINE CYCLE ,

SUPERHEATING , REHEATING AND

REGENERATIVE RANKINE CYCLE

Department of Mechanical Engineering 1

 Ideal Rankine Cycle
• Many of the impracticalities associated with the Carnot cycle can
be eliminated by superheating the steam in the boiler and
condensing it completely in the condenser.

• The cycle that results is the Rankine cycle, which is the ideal
cycle for vapor power plants. The ideal Rankine cycle does not
involve any internal irreversibilities and consists of the following
four processes:

• 1-2 Isentropic compression in a pump

• 2-3 Constant pressure heat addition in a boiler
• 3-4 Isentropic expansion in a turbine
• 4-1 Constant pressure heat rejection in a condenser 2
 Ideal Rankine Cycle
• 1-2 Isentropic compression in a pump
• Water enters the pump at state 1 as saturated liquid and is
compressed isentropically to the operating pressure of the
boiler. The water temperature increases somewhat during this
isentropic compression process due to a slight decrease in the
specific volume of water.
• 2-3 Constant pressure heat addition in a boiler
• Water enters the boiler as a compressed liquid at state 2 and
leaves as a superheated vapor at state 3. The boiler is basically a
large heat exchanger where the heat originating from combustion
gases, nuclear reactors, or other sources is transferred to the water
essentially at constant pressure. The boiler, together with the
section where the steam is superheated (the super heater), is often
called the steam generator.
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 Ideal Rankine Cycle
• 3-4 Isentropic expansion in a turbine
• The superheated vapor at state 3 enters the turbine, where it
expands isentropically and produces work by rotating the shaft
connected to an electric generator. The pressure and the
temperature of steam drop during this process to the values at
state 4, where steam enters the condenser
• 4-1 Constant pressure heat rejection in a condenser
• At this state, steam is usually a saturated liquid–vapor mixture
with a high quality. Steam is condensed at constant pressure in
the condenser, which is basically a large heat exchanger, by
rejecting heat to a cooling medium such as a lake, a river, or the
atmosphere. Steam leaves the condenser as saturated liquid
and enters the pump, completing the cycle.
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Actual Rankine Cycle

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 Energy Analysis of Ideal Rankine Cycle
• Remembering that the area under the process curve on a T-s
diagram represents the heat transfer for internally reversible
processes, we see that the area under process curve 2-3 represents
the heat transferred to the water in the boiler and the area under
the process curve 4-1 represents the heat rejected in the
condenser. The difference between these two (the area enclosed
by the cycle curve) is the net work produced during the cycle.

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 Energy Analysis of Ideal Rankine Cycle
• All four components associated with the Rankine cycle (the pump,
boiler, turbine, and condenser) are steady-flow devices, and thus all
four processes that make up the Rankine cycle can be analysed as
steady-flow processes.
• Then the steady-flow energy equation per unit mass of steam reduces
to :

• The boiler and the condenser do not involve any work, and the pump
and the turbine are assumed to be isentropic. Then the conservation
of energy relation for each device can be expressed :

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Energy Analysis of Ideal Rankine Cycle

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Energy Analysis of Ideal Rankine Cycle

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 How to Increase Efficiency of Rankine Cycle ??

• SUPERHEAT THE STEAM to very high temperatures before it

enters the turbine. This would be the desirable solution since
the average temperature at which heat is added would also
increase, thus increasing the cycle efficiency. However, since it
requires raising the steam temperature to metallurgically unsafe
levels.

• Expand the steam in the turbine in two stages, and reheat it in

between. In other words, modify the simple ideal Rankine cycle
with a REHEAT PROCESS. Reheating is a practical solution to the
excessive moisture problem in turbines, and it is commonly used
in modern steam power plants.

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SUPERHEATING Steam in Ideal Rankine Cycle

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 Superheating Steam in Ideal Rankine Cycle
• The average temperature at which heat is transferred to steam can
be increased without increasing the boiler pressure by
superheating the steam to high temperatures.
• The colored area on this diagram represents the increase in the net
work.
• Thus both the net work and heat input increase as a result of
superheating the steam to a higher temperature. The overall effect
is an increase in thermal efficiency, however, since the average
temperature at which heat is added increases.
• Superheating the steam to higher temperatures has another very
desirable effect: It decreases the moisture content of the steam at
the turbine exit.
• The temperature to which steam can be superheated is limited,
however, by metallurgical considerations. Any increase in this value
depends on improving the present materials or finding new ones
that can withstand higher temperatures. Ceramics are very
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promising in this regard.
Ideal REHEAT Rankine Cycle

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• The ideal reheat Rankine cycle differs from the simple ideal
Rankine cycle in that the expansion process takes place in two
stages. In the first stage (the high pressure turbine), steam is
expanded isentropically to an intermediate pressure and sent back
to the boiler where it is reheated at constant pressure, usually to
the inlet temperature of the first turbine stage. Steam then
expands isentropically in the second stage (low-pressure turbine)
to the condenser pressure.
• Thus the total heat input and the total turbine work output for a
reheat cycle become

• The incorporation of the single reheat in a modern power plant

improves the cycle efficiency by 4 to 5 percent by increasing the
average temperature at which heat is transferred to the steam. 14
 Ideal REGENERATIVE Rankine Cycle
• A careful examination of the T-s
diagram of the Rankine cycle
redrawn in Fig. reveals that heat is
transferred to the working fluid
during process 2-2’ at a relatively
low temperature. This lowers the
average heat addition temperature
and thus the cycle efficiency.
• To remedy this shortcoming, we
look for ways to raise the
temperature of the liquid leaving
the pump (called the feedwater)
before it enters the boiler. 15
 Ideal Regenerative Rankine Cycle
• A practical regeneration process in steam power plants is
accomplished by extracting, or “bleeding,” steam from the turbine
at various points. This steam, which could have produced more
work by expanding further in the turbine, is used to heat the
feedwater instead. The device where the feedwater is heated by
regeneration is called a regenerator, or a feedwater heater (FWH).

• Regeneration not only improves cycle efficiency, but also provides a

convenient means of deaerating the feedwater (removing the air
that leaks in at the condenser) to prevent corrosion in the boiler.

• A feedwater heater is basically a heat exchanger where heat is

transferred from the steam to the feedwater either by mixing the
two fluid streams (open feedwater heaters) or without mixing
them (closed feedwater heaters)
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 Open Feed Water Heaters
• An open (or direct-contact) feedwater heater is basically a mixing
chamber, where the steam extracted from the turbine mixes with
the feedwater exiting the pump. Ideally, the mixture leaves the
heater as a saturated liquid at the heater pressure. The schematic
of a steam power plant with one open feedwater heater (also
called single-stage regenerative cycle) and the T-s diagram of the
cycle are shown :

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 Closed Feed Water Heaters
• Another type of feedwater heater frequently used in steam power
plants is the closed feedwater heater, in which heat is transferred
from the extracted steam to the feedwater without any mixing
taking place. The two streams now can be at different pressures,
since they do not mix. The schematic of a steam power plant with
one closed feedwater heater and the T-s diagram of the cycle are
shown :

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NUMERICALS

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Problem # 01
• Consider a steam power plant operating on the SIMPLE IDEAL
RANKINE CYCLE. Steam enters the turbine at 3 MPa and 350‘C
and is condensed in the condenser at a pressure of 75 kPa.
Determine the thermal efficiency of this cycle.

Data ?
And
T-S Diagram ?

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Table A-6

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Problem # 02
Consider a steam power plant operating on the IDEAL REHEAT
RANKINE CYCLE. Steam enters the high-pressure turbine at 15 MPa
and 600’C and is condensed in the condenser at a pressure of 10 kPa.
If the moisture content of the steam at the exit of the low-pressure
turbine is not to exceed 10.4 percent, determine (A) the pressure at
which the steam should be reheated and (B) the thermal efficiency of
the cycle. Assume the steam is reheated to the inlet temperature of
the high-pressure turbine

T-S Diagram ?

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THANKYOU

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