EES ASSIGNMENT PROBLEMS

Instructions
• Use EES to solve the following 3 problems
• Prepare a separate EES file for each problem (making a total of 3 EES files)
• You should also prepare a single word or pdf document for all the problems
detailing your solutions by hand
• The 4 files can be zipped and submitted in the dropbox (Design Problem: EES)
• The due date is Monday February 22 nd at 11:59 pm.

Problem 1
(A) A steam power plant operates on an ideal regenerative Rankine cycle as shown in Figure 1.
Steam enters the turbine at 7 MPa and 500 °C and is condensed in the condenser at 20 kPa. Steam
is extracted from the turbine at 0.4 MPa to heat the feedwater in an open feedwater heater. Water
leaves the feedwater heater as a saturated liquid. Determine the net work output and the thermal
efficiency of the cycle.
(B) An engineer claims that the efficiency of the system can be improved by various techniques,
however, some of these techniques have negative effect on the steam quality. You are to study the
effects of the following techniques on the thermal efficiency and the steam quality at the turbine
exit. Tabulate and generate separate plots for each of the parameters. For each parameter, you can
overlay the plots for thermal efficiency and steam quality.
(i) Varying the boiler pressure from 2 – 10 MPa
(ii) Varying the turbine inlet temperature from 350 – 600 oC
(iii) Varying the condenser pressure from 15 – 100 kPa

Figure 1. Ideal Regenerative Rankine Cycle

Problem 2
You were consulted by a farmer who wishes to pump water at 70°F from a river to a water storage
tank nearby using a 125-ft-long, 5-in-diameter galvanized iron pipe as shown in the figure below.
The water velocity near the river surface is 6 ft/s, and the pipe inlet is to be placed in the river
normal to the flow direction of water to take advantage of the dynamic pressure. The elevation
difference between the river and the free surface of the tank is 12 ft. The piping system involves
some flow restrictions with a total minor loss coefficient of 1.9. The required flow rate is 1.5 ft3/s
and the overall pump efficiency is 70 percent. You can assume that the water storage tank is large
such that the velocity of water in it is negligible. Convert the units of all the parameters to SI using
the convert function of EES and determine the required electric power input to the pump.
Investigate the effects of the pipe diameter and the water flow rate on the required electric power
input to the pump. You should study the effects of the two parameters separately. Let the pipe
diameter vary from 3 to 15 in, in increments of 1 in and the flow rate vary from 0.1 – 2 ft3/s, in
increments of 0.1 ft3/s. Tabulate and plot the results.

Figure for Problem 2

Problem 3
An automobile radiator may be viewed as a cross-flow heat exchanger with both fluids unmixed.
Water, which has a flow rate of 0.07 kg/s, enters the radiator at 400 K and is to leave at 335 K.
The water is cooled by air that enters at 0.85 kg/s and 305 K.
(a) If the overall heat transfer coefficient is 220 W/ m2 K, what is the required heat transfer surface
area and air outlet temperature?
(b) A manufacturing engineer claims ridges can be stamped on the finned surface of the exchanger,
which could greatly increase the overall heat transfer coefficient. With all other conditions
remaining the same as determined from part (a), generate a plot of the heat transfer area as a
function of U for 200 ≤ U ≤ 400 W/m2K. What benefits result from increasing the overall heat
transfer coefficient for this application?
(C) Investigate the effects of the air flow rate on the air outlet temperature. You should vary the
flow rate from 0.3 to 1 kg/s.