Jishnu Bhattacharya

1st Semester - 2016-17

Lecture -16

Internal Irreversibility
Irreversibility is caused by the Fluid friction, throttling and mixing

Internal Irreversibility

Prices for irreversibility : Turbine produces less work and pump absorbs
more work

External Irreversibility
Irreversibility is caused by the Heat transfer due to finite temperature
difference
Pinch Point: The points
of minimum

T
T ,

Smaller pinch point

Bigger

boiler

but

less

irreversibility
Larger pinch point

smaller and inexpensive

boiler

but

efficiency

less

plant

Degree of superheat
If we fix the maximum temperature,
higher pressure will lead to better
cycle efficiency (as mean effective
temperature of heat addition is
increased) but worse exit quality of
steam
On the other hand, lower pressure
improves the exit quality of steam
Quality at turbine exit > 0.9

but provides less thermal efficiency

Reheating provides solution

Reheating How is it done?

Reheating
Net work output increases with reheat as

h3 h4 s > h2 s h4 's
Reheating improves the quality of turbine
exhaust as well
However, whether the plant efficiency is
improved is not obvious it depends on
whether it improves the mean temperature
of heat addition
We note that the area, 4s-2s-3-4s is the
additional net heat supplied to the cycle.

Multiple Reheating?
To improve the steam quality
further or to reduce the specific
steam rate, multiple reheating is
sometimes employed
However they come at the cost of
increased expense and complexity
as well as more irreversibility
Usually, more than two reheats are
never employed

Reheat at what pressure?

the reheat pressure (prh) is a
design parameter which critically
influences the major factors that
leads to the application of reheat
Efficiency and quality at the
turbine exhaust

Reheat at what pressure?

Regeneration
To improve efficiency, the mean temperature of heat addition is
important
Reheating accomplish this goal by modifying the high
temperature (superheated region) part of the heat addition
process
Regeneration provides a way to modify the low temperature
region (subcooled liquid) if we can decrease the area under the
curve in the low temperature region, it effectively improves the
mean temperature of heat addition and hence the efficiency

Regeneration
Reheat
Regeneration

Regeneration

Regeneration

Basic idea: To heat up the low

temperature

working

fluid

using heat from inside the

cycle (bypassing the external
source)

Ideal Regeneration

Ideal Regeneration

Ideal Regeneration
Assume,

reversible

heat

transfer
Infinitesimal

temperature

difference at each point

Total entropy generation is
zero,

hence

in

each

infinitesimal step, the entropy

gain of water will be equal to
the entropy loss of the steam

Ideal Regeneration
As a consequence,
Slopes of the lines 1-2 and 5-4s
will be identical
Areas 4s-5-b-a-4s and 1-d-c-2-1
will

be

identical

and

congruous.
Heat added from 4s to 5 is from
inside the cycle

Ideal Regeneration
External heat addition is now
only between 5 and 1 which
is at constant temperature

However
Nothing is ideal in this world
Reversible heat transfer never happens in finite time
Combining heat exchanger and turbine is impracticable
Quality of vapour at turbine exit is terrible

Real Regeneration
Turbine and heat exchanger are not put together
Rather, we take out certain hot steam from inside the turbine to flow
through separate heat exchanger where feed water is heated
Often these heat exchangers are open chambers where hot and cold
streams are mixed together
We usually do this multiple times
For each regeneration step we need separate heat exchanger which are
called regenerators.
Now, the mass flow rate is not uniform in each part of the diagram
this is a very important point of common mistake. Make sure you dont
do it!

Real Regeneration

Real Regeneration

Real Regeneration

Note from the equipment diagram, the

feedwater enters the boiler at state 10, not
at state 6. Hence:
while,
As, Tm1 with regeneration > Tm1 without regeneration,
efficiency is higher with regeneration