FACULTY OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

CHE433 THERMODYNAMICS

EXERCISE
1. A well insulated rigid tank contains 7 kg of saturated liquid-vapor mixture of
water at 100 kPa. Initially three quarter of the mass is in the liquid phase. An
electric resistor placed in the tank is connected to a 110-V source and a current
of 12 A flows through the resistor when the switch is turned on.
a) Determine how long it will take to vaporize all the liquid in the tank.
b) Illustrate the process in the T-v diagram with respect to saturation line.
c) If the electric resistor is replaced by a coil which supply heat at a rate of 2000
kJ/hr, propose which method (electric resistor or coil) will give faster time to
this duty.
2. A piston-cylinder device contained 3 kg of saturated liquid R-134a at 82C is
heated at constant pressure until it is become saturated vapor. State three (3)
assumptions that can be made, sketch T-v diagram with respect to the saturation
lines and determine the heat transfer required for this process.
3. An air-conditioning system involves the mixing of cold air and warm outdoor air
before the mixture is routed to the conditioned room in steady operation. Cold
air enters the mixing chamber at 5C and 105 kPa at a rate of 1.25 m 3/s while
warm air enters at 34C and 105 kPa. The air leaves the room at 24C. The ratio
of the mass flow rates of the hot to cold air streams is 1.6. Using variable
specific heats, determine
a) the mixture temperature at the inlet of the room
b) the rate of heat gain of the room.

4. An engineer at Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water has been

assigned to find another power producer company to replace the existing
company. One of independent power producer (IPP) company claims that they
have developed a power cycle capable of delivering a net work output of 500 kJ
for an energy input by heat transfer of 1000 kJ. The system undergoing the cycle
receives the heat transfer from hot gases at a temperature of 500 K and
discharges the energy by heat transfer to the atmosphere at 303 K. Evaluate this
claim.
5. One kilogram of air as an ideal gas executes a Carnot power cycle having a
thermal efficiency of 60%. The heat transfer to the air during the isothermal

FACULTY OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

CHE433 THERMODYNAMICS

expansion is 40 kJ. At the end of the isothermal expansion, the pressure is 5.6
bar and the volume is 0.3 m3. Determine
a) the maximum and minimum temperatures for the cycle
b) the pressure and volume at the beginning of the isothermal expansion.
c) the work and heat transfer for each of the four processes.
d) Sketch the cycle on P-v coordinates.
6. A smaller power plant produces steam at 3 MPa, 600C in the boiler. It keeps the
condenser at 45C by the transfer of 10 MW out as heat transfer. The first
turbine section expands to 500 kPa, and then flow is reheated followed by the
expansion in the low pressure turbine. Determine
a) the reheat temperature so that the turbine output is saturated vapor
b) the total turbine power output and the boiler heat transfer
c) the cycle efficiency and draw the T-s diagram
7. A Rankine cycle describes a model of steam operated heat engine most
commonly found in power generation plants. Common heat sources for power
plants using the Rankine cycle are the combustion of coal, natural gas and oil,
and nuclear fission. Water is the working fluid in an ideal Rankine cycle.
Superheated vapor enters the turbine at 8 MPa, 480C. The condenser pressure
is 8 kPa. The net power output of the cycle is 100 MW. Determine for the cycle;
a) Sketch the cycle on the T-s coordinates.
b) Determine the enthalpy and entropy for each stream
c) The rate of heat transfer to the working fluid passing through the steam
generator.
d) The thermal efficiency.
e) The mass flow rate of condenser cooling water, in kg/h, if the cooling water
enters the condenser at 15C and exits at 35C with negligible pressure
change.