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
Power Cycle
Carnot Vapor
Power Cycle
Carnot Vapor
Power Cycle
 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
Carnot Vapor
Power Cycle
 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
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
Rankine pressure.
Average temperature at which heat
Cycle is supplied is increased by
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
 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
 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,
(b) If the turbine and the pump have each 80% efficiency, find
the percental reduction in the net work and cycle efficiency.
Rankine
Cycle

PK Nag(example 12.2 3rd Ed)

Rankine
h (KJ/Kg)
Cycle

s (KJ/Kg.K)
Rankine 

Cycle
Rankine 

Cycle
Rankine 

Cycle
 Effect of superheat on Rankine cycle?
“An increase in the superheat at constant pressure increases the
mean temperature of heat addition and hence the cycle
efficiency” ++

Rankine
Cycle

PK Nag(Page 425 3rd Ed)

 Effect of increase of pressure on Rankine
cycle?
“When maximum temperature is fixed, as boiler pressure
increases, the mean temperature of heat addition also increases”
++

Rankine
Cycle

PK Nag(Page 425 3rd Ed)

 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: 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
steam pressure at the turbine inlet, and calculate the
Rankine Rankine efficiency for these steam conditions.
Cycle Estimate also the mean temperature of heat
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
 ❑With the Reheat cycle the expansion takes place in two
turbines(maximum 4 turbine).
❑The steam expands in the high pressure turbine to some
intermediate pressure and is then passed back to yet another
bank of tubes in the boiler,
❑where it is reheated at constant pressure, usually to the original
superheat temperature. It is then expands in the low pressure
turbine.

Reheat Cycle 7

8
 Advantages of Reheating
❑There is an increased output of the turbine.
❑Erosion and corrosion problems in the steam turbine are
eliminated/avoided.
❑There is an improvement in the thermal efficiency of the
turbines.
❑Final dryness fraction of steam is improved.
Reheat Cycle ❑There is an increase in the nozzle and blade efficiencies.
Disadvantages
❑Reheating requires more maintenance.
❑The increase in thermal efficiency is not appreciable in
comparison to the expenditure incurred in reheating.
 Why Steam Reheating? (Explained)
A reheater is a heat exchanger. The steam must be reheated or
superheated in order to avoid damages that could be caused to blades of
steam turbine by low quality steam. High content of water droplets can
cause the rapid impingement and erosion of the blades which occurs when
condensed water is blasted onto the blades.
The exhausted steam is at a pressure well below atmospheric, and, as can be
seen from the picture, the steam is in a partially condensed state (point F),
typically of a quality near 90%, but it is much higher vapor quality, than that
it would be without reheat. Accordingly, superheating also tends to alleviate
Reheat Cycle the problem of low vapor quality at the turbine exhaust.
 
Reheat Cycle

3S
 Methods of Reheating Steam
❑Gas Reheating
Reheat Cycle ❑Live Steam reheating
❑Combined Gas and Live Steam Reheating
 Methods of Reheating Steam
❑Gas Reheating
The product of combustion is used to heat the expanded steam in HPT
before it enters into LPT

To Condenser

Reheat Cycle HPT LPT

Flue
Gas

Superheater
Reheater
 Methods of Reheating Steam
❑Live Steam Reheating
The Superheated Steam is used to heat the expanded steam in the Heat
Exchanger before it enters into LPT

To Condenser

Reheat Cycle HPT LPT

Flue
Gas

Superheater
Heat Exchanger
 Methods of Reheating Steam
❑Combined Gas and Live Steam Reheating
This is the combination above two methods

To Condenser

Reheat Cycle HPT LPT

Flue
Gas
Heat Exchanger
Superheater
Reheater
 Problem 11.4(Rogers): Find the ideal cycle
efficiency and specific steam consumption of
Reheat cycle operating between pressures of
30 bar and 0.04 bar, with a superheat
o
temperature of 450 C. Assume that the first
Reheat Cycle expansion is carried out to the point where
steam is dry saturated and that the steam is
reheated to the original superheat temperature.
The feed pump term may be neglected.
Reheat Cycle
 Problem: A steam power station uses the following
cycle: Steam at boiler outlet-150 bar, 550°C
Reheat at 40 bar to 550°C
Condenser at 0.1 bar.
Using the Mollier chart and assuming ideal
processes, find the
Reheat Cycle (a) quality at turbine exhaust,
(b) cycle efficiency,
(c) steam rate,
(d) Reheat Factor
(e) Work ratio
PK Nag(example 12.4 3rd Ed)
Regenerative 
Cycle
 ❑The mean temperature of heat addition can also be increased
by decreasing the amount of heat added at low temperatures.
❑In a saturated steam Rankine cycle (Figure), a considerable
part of the total supplied is in the liquid phase when heating up
water from 5 to 1, at a temperature lower than T2, the maximum
temperature of the cycle. For maximum efficiency, all heat
Regenerative should be supplied at T2; and feedwater should enter the boiler
at state 1. This may be accomplished in what it is known as an
Cycle ideal regenerative cycle
 ❑One method which is theoretically possible is indicated
in figure. The feed water, at T6 , is passed into passages in
the turbine casing at the point where the expanding steam
has a temperature only infinitesimally greater than T6 .
The water flows in a direction opposite to that of
Hypothetical/ expanding steam, and is thereby heated to a temperature
only infinitesimally smaller than T2 before it passes into
Ideal boiler.
Regenerative
Cycle

Details: Rogers 222-223 page

 ❑Hypothetical Regenerative Cycle is impractical for
two reasons
Hypothetical/ ❑First, it would be impossible to design a turbine which would
Ideal operate efficiently as both turbine and heat exchanger,
❑Secondly, the steam expanding through the turbine would reach
Regenerative an impracticably low dryness fraction.

Cycle For these reasons the basic idea of regeneration is applied in a

somewhat different way, instead of the feed water being taken to
the turbine, some of the turbine steam is taken to the feed water.
Practical
Regenerative
Cycle(One
feed water
heater)

How Carnot Efficiency Can Be Achieved In Regenerative

Details: Rogers 223 page
Cycle?
 ❑The device where the feedwater is heated by
regeneration is called a regenerator, or a feedwater heater
(FWH).
❑A feedwater heater is basically a heat exchanger where
Feed Water heat is transferred from the steam to the feedwater either
by mixing the two fluid streams or without mixing them.
Heater, i.e. ❑Regeneration not only improves cycle efficiency, but
Regenerator also provides a convenient means of deaerating the
feedwater (removing the air that leaks in at the
condenser) to prevent corrosion in the boiler.
❑FWH are of two types: open feedwater heaters and
closed feed water heater
 ❑Open Feedwater Heater
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.
Feed Water The schematic of a steam power plant with one open feedwater
heater (also called single-stage regenerative cycle) and the T-s
Heater, i.e. diagram of the cycle are shown in Figure.

Regenerator
 ❑Closed Feedwater Heater
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
Feed Water not mix.
The schematic of a steam power plant with one closed feedwater
Heater, i.e. heater and the T-s diagram of the cycle are shown in Figure.

Regenerator
 Problem: In a single-heater regenerative cycle the steam enters
the turbine at 30 bar, 400°C and the exhaust pressure is 0.10 bar.
The feedwater heater is a direct-contact type which operates at 5
Regenerative bar. Find
(a) the efficiency and the steam rate of the cycle, and
Cycle (b) the increase in mean temperature of heat addition,
efficiency and steam rate, as compared to the rankine
cycle (without regeneration).
Neglect pump work.

PK Nag(example 12.5 3rd Ed)

 Extracted Steam: In Reheat cycle, the steam at high
pressure and temperature are taken from the boiler
Extracted and used to heat the steam coming out from high
pressure turbine is called extracted steam.
and Bleed Bleed Steam: In Regenerative cycle, the steam is
Steam taken from a intermediate point of the turbine and
used to heat feed water in feed water heater is called
Bleed Steam.
 Effect of Bleed Temperature on Cycle efficiency

Regenerative
Cycle

Self Study: Rogers

Reheat-
Regenerative
Cycle

Self Study: P K Nag

Economizer
and Air
Preheater
 Why Economizer Is Not Used In Regenerative Cycle?

❑If an economizer is added to the cycle shown in figure, the minimum

temperature to which the combustion gases can be cooled is T1.
❑When a large number of feed heaters is used, the feed water entering the
Economizer boiler is nearly at boiling point and an economizer becomes superfluous.

and Air
Preheater
 Process Heat
❑Many systems or devices, however, require energy input in the
form of heat, called process heat.
❑Some industries that rely heavily on process heat are chemical,
pulp and paper, oil production and refining, steel making, food
processing, and textile industries.

Cogeneration
 Cogeneration
❑Industries that use large amounts of process heat also consume a
large amount of electric power. Therefore, it makes economical
as well as engineering sense to use the already existing work
potential to produce power instead of letting it go to waste.
❑The result is a plant that produces electricity while meeting the
process-heat requirements of certain industrial processes. Such a
plant is called a cogeneration plant.

Cogeneration ❑In general, cogeneration is the production of more than one

useful form of energy (such as process heat and electric power)
from the same energy source.
 Back Pressure turbine and Extraction Turbine
❑A turbine exhausting into e condenser at a relatively high
pressure, in which the rejected heat is employed usefully, is
called a back pressure turbine.
Cogeneration ❑The use of back pressure turbine is practical if the power and
heat requirements are fairly steady and well matched.
❑When the power requirements are larger than those that can be
obtained from a simple back pressure turbine, an extraction or
pass-out turbine can be used.
 ❑A gas power cycle topping a vapor power cycle, which is called
the combined gas-vapor cycle, or just the combined cycle.
❑The combined cycle of greatest interest is the gas turbine
(Brayton) cycle topping a steam turbine (Rankine) cycle, which
has a higher thermal efficiency than either of the cycles executed
Combined individually.

Gas - vapor
Power
Cycles
 ❑In binary vapor cycles, the condenser of the high-temperature
cycle (also called the topping cycle) serves as the boiler of the
low-temperature cycle (also called the bottoming cycle).
❑That is, the heat output of the high-temperature cycle is used as
the heat input to the low-temperature one.

Binary Vapor
Cycles
 Thank You

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11/22/2020 Md. Shariful Islam, Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KUET 73