The Ideal Reheat Rankine Cycle

How can we take advantage of the

increased efficiencies at higher boiler
pressures without facing the problem
of excessive moisture at the final
stages of the turbine?
 The ideal reheat Rankine cycle
Purpose: Reduce moisture content of the steam.


WT 1  WT 2  WP

 h3  h4   ( h5  h6 )  (h2  h1 )
Q primary  Qreheat  h3  h2    h5  h4 
 The ideal reheat Rankine cycle
Some important points:
1. Single reheat can increase efficiency by almost 5%.
2. Improvement from 2nd reheat is about half of 1st.
3. Double reheat almost always used in super-critical
pressure power plants.
4. Improvement from 3rd reheat is about half of 2nd (cost
not justified).
5. Reheat temperatures are close or equal to turbine inlet
temperature.
6. Optimum reheat pressure for most modern power plants
is about one-fourth of the max cycle pressure.
 The ideal Supercritical reheat Rankine cycle
Advantage:
– very high heat addition
=> high h
Disadvantage:
– material requirements
(thermal/mechanical stress)
=> high initial costs
 A non-ideal reheat Rankine cycle
• What will happen to the net work output, efficiency and pump work?

.4
s

2 .
2s
.6
6s

T , P  100%

Note: T = Turbine ; P = Pump