ENGR 2010 Thermodynamics I: HW set 10

Most of these problems deal with the isentropic eciency of turbines, compressors, and pumps. When these devices are
adiabatic (as is often the case), a comparison can be made between the performance of the actual, irreversible device and a
perfect, reversible one operating between the same inlet state and exit pressure. It is important to note that the actual exit
state of the actual device (denoted as state 2a) will not be the same as the hypothetical exit state of the reversible device
(denoted as 2s).
For work producing devices (turbines), the isentropic eciency is dened as

t
=
w
a
w
s
=
h
1
h
2a
h
1
h
2s
with state 2 xed by the two properties P
2
and s
2s
= s
1
. For work consuming devices (pumps, compressors), the denition
of isentropic eciency is ipped:

c
=
w
s
w
a
=
h
1
h
2s
h
1
h
2a
Reversible behavior always gives us optimum performance. For a turbine, this means more work out relative to the actual
device (w
s
> w
a
), and for the compressor/pump, it means less work in (|w
s
| < |w
a
|).
There is one problem involving an isothermal (as opposed to adiabatic) air compressor. The idea here is to cool the air
(i.e., remove heat) as it is compressed. When the process is assumed to be reversible and isothermal, the heat transfer in the
process can be predicted from application of the second law. On a per-unit-mass basis,
q = T(s
2
s
1
)
where T = T
1
= T
2
= the constant temperature of the stream through the compressor. Couple this formula with the rst
law, and you can get a formula to predict the work input of an isothermal and reversible compressor.
The benet of this approach is that an isothermal and reversible compression between two pressures P
1
and P
2
will take
less work than an adiabatic and reversible compression between the same pressures.
1. Steam enters an adiabatic turbine at 350

C and 2 MPa.
The exit from the turbine is a saturated vapor at 50
kPa. Determine the isentropic eciency of the turbine.
h
1
= 3137.0 kJ/kg, s
1
= 6.956 kJ/kg K
State 2s : s
2s
= s
1
and P
2
= 50 kPa: h
2s
=
2419.8 kJ/kg and
w
s
= h
1
h
2s
= 717.2 kJ/kg
State 2a : x
2a
= 1 and P
2
= 50 kPa: h
2a
=
2645.9 kJ/kg, and
w
a
= h
1
h
2a
= 491.1 kJ/kg

t
=
w
a
w
s
= 0.68
2. Steam at 500

C, 3 MPa pressure enters an adiabatic

turbine at the rate of m = 10 kg/s. The exit pressure is
500 kPa, and the isentropic eciency is
t
= 0.8. Deter-
mine the power output and the actual exit temperature
of the steam.
h
1
= 3456.5 kJ/kg, s
1
= 7.234 kJ/kg K
s
2s
= s
1
, P
2
= 500 kPa : h
2s
= 2941.5 kJ/kg
w
s
= h
1
h
2s
= 515 kJ/kg, w
a
=
t
w
a
= 412 kJ/kg

W = mw
a
= 4120 kW
h
2a
= h
1
w
a
= 3044.5 kJ/kg
and at this enthalpy and P
2
= 500 kPa: T
2
= 290.5

C:
this is a superheated state.
3. Steam enters an adiabatic turbine at 400

C, 2 MPa pres-
sure. The turbine has an isentropic eciency of 0.9.
The exit pressure is set so that the actual work output
from the turbine is w
a
= 700 kJ/kg. Determine the
required exit pressure and the actual exit temperature
and quality, if saturated.
h
1
= 3247.6 kJ/kg, s
1
= 7.127 kJ/kg K
h
2a
= h
1
w
a
= 2547.6 kJ/kg
w
s
=
w
a

t
= 777.8 kJ/kg
h
2s
= h
1
w
s
= 2469.8 kJ/kg
h
2s
and s
2s
= s
1
x state 2s. This is a dicult dou-
ble interpolation problem if solved using the property
tables, yet it is trivial using the code. The pair gives
P
2s
= P
2
= 46.6 kPa. State 2a is now xed by P
2
and
h
2a
, for which T
2a
= 79.6

C and x
2a
= 0.959.
4. Air enters a adiabatic turbine at 1200 K and 8 atm pres-
sure. The exit pressure is 1 atm. The turbine has an
isentropic eciency of 0.85. Determine the actual exit
temperature and the work per unit mass. Use the air
tables to solve this problem.
From the air tables at 1200 K,
h
1
= 1278 kJ/kg, s

1
= 3.179 kJ/kg K
The isentropic process 1 2s has s = 0, so
s

2s
= s

1
+R ln
(
P
2
P
1
)
= 2.58 kJ/kg K
and interpolating gives h
2s
= 721 kJ/kg.
w
s
= h
1
h
2s
= 557 kJ/kg
w
a
=
t
w
s
= 473 kJ/kg
h
2a
= h
1
w
a
= 805 kJ/kg
Interpolating in the air tables with this enthalpy gives
T
2a
= 783 K.
5. Air enters an adiabatic compressor at 300 K, 1 atm pres-
sure. The work input to the compressor is 350 kJ per
kg of air owing through the compressor. Given that
the compressor has an isentropic eciency of 0.85, cal-
culate the actual exit temperature and pressure of the
compressor. Use the constant specic heat relations for
this problem:
h
2
h
1
= C
P
(T
2
T
1
),
T
2s
T
1
=
(
P
2
P
1
)
(k1)/k
with C
P
= 1.01 kJ/kg K and k = 1.4 for air.
w
a
= h
1
h
2a
C
P
(T
1
T
2a
) = 350 kJ/kg
T
2a
= T
1

w
a
C
P
= 647 K
w
s
=
c
w
a
C
P
(T
1
T
2s
)
Solve to get T
2s
= 595 K. Since 1 2s is isentropic;
P
2
= P
1
(
T
2s
T
1
)
k/(k1)
= 10.96 atm
6. Compare the work per unit mass required to compress
air, initially at 1 atm, 300 K, to 10 atm in a) an adia-
batic and reversible process, and b) an isothermal and
reversible process. Assume constant specic heats.
a) An adiabatic and reversible process is isentropic. As-
suming ideal gas behavior with constant specic heats,
the exit temperature will be
T
2
= T
1
(
P
2
P
1
)
(k1)/k
= 300 10
0.4/1.4
= 579.2 K
and the specic work is
w = C
p
(T
1
T
2
) = 1.01 (300 579.2) = 282.0 kJ/kg
b) the specic work for an isothermal and reversible
SSSF process is
w = RT ln
(
P
2
P
1
)
= 0.287300ln 10 = 198.3 kJ/kg
The isothermal process uses about 2/3 of the work as
the adiabatic one.
7. Steam enters a turbine at 350

C, and exits at 50 kPa.

The isentropic eciency of the turbine is 0.85. To pre-
vent corrosion of the turbine by liquid water, the inlet
pressure must be set so that the actual exit is a sat-
urated vapor at 50 kPa. Determine the required inlet
pressure. This is a challenging problem, not for the faint
of heart. Solution requires iteration.
The problem states that h
2a
= h
g
at 50 kPa. Two prop-
erties are needed to x state 1 and we know only one of
them: T
1
= 350

C. The basic procedure is as follows:

(a) Guess a value of P
1
(say P
1
= 1 MPa).
(b) x state 1 with T
1
and P
1
, get state 2s, calculate
w
s
, w
a
=
t
w
s
, and calculate h

2a
= h
1
w
a
: this is
the value of the actual exit enthalpy corresponding
to the guessed P
1
.
(c) Calculate h = h

2a
h
2a
, where h
2a
= h
g
at 50
kPa is the sought actual exit enthalpy.
(d) If h < 0 or > 0 the pressure P
1
is too high or
too low, respectively. Return to step 1 with a new
P
1
, and iterate until you get two points with h
bracketing zero. Interpolate with h = 0 to get
P
1
.