Rankine Cycle

Dr. R. J. Howell
 Carnot Cycle Issues
• Carnot cycle not
used in practice
– pumping from 4 to
1 in mixture of
liquid and vapour
– Similar for turbine
• liquid water
droplets can very
badly damage the
turbine blades
 Aim
• Devise a cycle which can actually be made
but retains good efficiency.
Rankine Cycle
T (°C)

• state 4 is moved to 700

Phigh

the saturation line 600

Plow
500 Normal cycle: Turbine
starts with sat vap

• Heat addition now 400 1 2

starts at 5 300

5
200

4 4 3
100

0
0 2 4 6 8 -1 -1
10
s (kJ kg K )
 Q2 T2
Rankine Cycle carnot  1   1
Q1 T1

• Lower average T (°C)

temperature for heat 700

Phigh

addition 600

500
Q IN Plow

• Expect cycle 400 1 2

300
efficiency will be 5
200
lower than that of the 3
4
Carnot cycle 100

0
0 2 4 6 8 -1 -1
10
s (kJ kg K )
 Rankine Cycle: Example

T (°C)
30 bar
• Same cycle 700
Phigh

pressures as 600

Q IN Plow

previous 500

Carnot cycle 400 1 2

300

5
200

4 3
100

0
0 2 4 6 8 -1 -1
10
s (kJ kg K )
 Solution Procedure
THIS IS STEAM – use Tables (LBTF)

• Point (1) is saturated liquid at 30 bar, so

enthalpy is h1 = hf = 1008kJ/kgK as before.

• At 30 bar the saturation temperature is

T1 = T2 = 233.9C = 507.0K

• Point (2) is at the same pressure but saturated

vapour, so enthalpy is
h2 = hg = 2803kJ/kgK
 Solution Procedure
• The only modification at state 4
– now can be read from the tables at the same
saturation pressure (0.04 bar)
• h4 = 121kJ/kg T (°C)

700
Phigh

600

• Need to recalculate work for 500

Q IN Plow

400 1 2
pump/compressor 300

5
200

100 4 3
0
0 2 4 6 8 -1 -1
10
s (kJ kg K )
 Solution: Pump work
• Now the working fluid is now entirely liquid
so we can write In Pascals

W23  (h3  h2 )  v f ( p3  p2 )

Specific volume – m3/kg

 Solution: Pump work
• Pump work =
-0.001 (30 – 0.04) x 100 = 3kJ/kg.
W23  v f ( p5  p4 )
(it was -215kJ/kg)
• Also, efficiency of any such pump will also
be higher because it is no longer pumping
a two phase working fluid.
 Solution: Heat Supplied
• Calculate the
new state 5

• h5 = h4 + W4-5 =
121 + 3 =

124kJ/kg
 Solution: Efficiency
• heat supplied Q5-2.

Wnet 940  3
   0.35
Q52 2679

• efficiency is lower than that of the Carnot cycle

(40%), but this is almost a practical
thermodynamic cycle
 Solution: with real pump
• pump efficiency = 80%
– actual work to pump liquid from states 4 to 5

Wpump = 3kJ/kg / 0.80 = 4kJ/kg.

– Then re-calculate the enthalpy at 5

i.e. h5 = h4 + Wpump = 121 + 4 = 125kJ/kg
Q5-2 = (h2-h5) = 2803-125 = 2678kJ/kg.
 Solution: with real turbine
• Turbine efficiency = 80%
• Turbine work was 940 kJ/kg
• Actual Turbine work is 940 * 0.80
• Actual Turbine work is 752 kJ/kg
Real cycle efficiency is:

Wnet / Q in = 27.9%
Wetness fraction problem
 T (°C)
Superheat cycle: Define
700 turbine start with temp.
and pressure Phigh

Modified 600

5 Plow
500

Rankine 400 3
4
-super heat 300

2
200

1 6
100

0
0 2 4 6 8 -1 -1
10
s (kJ kg K )
 Superheat - advantages
Q in

3,4 Superheater
5
2 Boiler
(A) (A)

W out
HP Turbine
W in (B)
Pump
(D)

6
1
Condenser
(C)
Q out

• Adding heat at a higher temperature

• Dryer turbine exit flow
 Rankine cycle: Other options
• Increasing boiler
T (°C)
pressure will 700
Wetter turbine
Phigher
Outlet conditions
increase wetness 600 Phigh
of station 6 500
5
Plow
400 3
4

300

2
200

1 6` 6
100

0
0 2 4 6 8 -1 -1
10
s (kJ kg K )
 Rankine cycle: Other options
• Isentropic
T (°C)
Efficiency 700
Superheat cycle: Define
turbine start with temp.
Phigh
– Increases dryness
and pressure
600

5 Plow
500 Normal cycle: Turbine
starts with sat vap

400 3
4

300

2
200

1 6` 6
100

0
0 2 4 6 8 -1 -1
10
s (kJ kg K )
Rankine cycle – reheat
 Rankine cycle – reheat

Not necessarily
on saturation line
 Rankine cycle
Q in
Reheater (A)
3,4,5 Boiler Superheater 5
(A) (A)
7
6
W out
HP Turbine
(B) LP
Turbine
(C)

2
Condenser
(C)
Q out
1
W in Pump
(D)
 Example:
Rankine Cycle

• Calculate ideal cycle efficiency of a reheat

cycle (based on the previous figure)
operating between 30 and 0.04 bar with a
superheat temperature of 450ºC.

N.B. the first expansion is stopped where

the steam is dry and saturated for
simplicity.
Example: Rankine Cycle
 Example: Rankine Cycle
• h2 = h1 (neglecting pumping work) = 121kJ/kg.
• Need h5
see tables

• h5 = 3343kJ/kg (at 30 bar and 450ºC)

• s5 = 7.082kJ/kg
Example: Intermediate Pressure
• ‘difficult’ part comes in finding intermediate
re-heat pressure p6
• found from the saturation table where
sg=s5 (assuming an isentropic turbine)
– where s5 = 7.082kJ/kg
 s5 = 7.082kJ/kg

Superheat table

Saturation table
 Require linear interpolation to find
unknown pressure
• Closest values to s5 are between 7.088
and 7.053kJ/kg.
• Need to interpolate to obtain correct
pressure for sg = 7.082kJ/kg. Unknown
Pressure
7.088  7.082 2.25  pressure?

7.088  7.052 2.25  2.50
pressure = 2.3 bar
 Super heat, state 7
• super heat tables to
find the enthalpy
and entropy at
2.3 bar and 450ºC.

• h7 = 3381kJ/kg and
s7 = 8.31kJ/kgK.
 Need to check dryness at 8
• know sf and sg at 0.04 bar
• know s7 (8.31kJ/kgK) = s8 from previous.
stotal  s f
x
sg  s f

htotal,8  h f
• x8 = 0.98,  x8
hg  h f

• which then leads to h8 = 2505kJ/kg.

 Efficiency
• Definition:
what we want, divided by what we
have to pay for.

• heat supplied to the boiler(s)

Q2-5 + Q6-7 = ( h5 – h2 ) + ( h7 – h6 )
= 3890kJ/kg.
 Turbine Work

• W5-6 + W7-8 = 1506kJ/kg

 Cycle efficiency

1506
  38.7%
3890

• Close to Carnot cycle – and this cycle

actually works!
 Specific Steam Consumption.
• The specific steam consumption (s.s.c) is
the amount of steam required to generate
a unit work output (usually in kiloWatts per
hour).
Cycle Carnot Rankine Rankine Re-heat
(ideal) (no s-heat) (s-heat)
 40.4% 35% 37.5% 38.7%
s.s.c 4.97 3.84 2.98 2.39
 Tutorial sheets
• Can now do tutorial sheet 1 and a bit of
sheet 2