Steam Turbine

MECE E3028 Lab II

References
• Y. Çengel and M. A. Boles, Thermodynamics An
Engineering Approach, McGraw-Hill

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 Steam Turbine: Heart of Power Plants

Power Plants Use Vapor as a Working Fluid

• Steam: most common working fluid in vapor
power cycles in power plants
• Advantages:
– Low cost, ready availability, high enthalpy of
vaporization
• Types of steam power plants: use different types
of fuel to supply heat for steam generation:
– Coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants
– Steam goes through the same basic cycle in these
different types of power plants
– Steam cycles analyzed by same method

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Core Components of Steam Cycle
Boiler: fuel burned to heat
pressurized water to
vaporize into superheated
steam

Turbine: high-pressure, high-

temperature steam expands in
turbine, whose rotation drives
an electric generator

Condenser: steam is
cooled down to saturated
water

Pump: water is
pressurized and sent back
into boiler

Steam Cycle Operation

Superheated
steam
Compressed
water

Steam/water
mixture

Saturated
water

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 Pump: Compressing Saturated Water

• Pump: a device that moves fluids

(liquids or gases)
• Centrifugal pumps transports fluids by
conversing rotational kinetic energy
comes from an engine or electric motor
to the hydrodynamic energy of the fluid
flow.
• Fluids enters the pump along the
rotating axis accelerated by the impeller
and then discharged.

Boiler: Generating Steam from Water

• Boiler: a device that generates steam

by applying heat energy to water.
• Most boilers produce saturated steam.
Superheated steam boilers vaporize the
water and then further heat the steam
in a superheater.
• Superheated steam removes droplets
entrained in the steam to prevent
damage to the turbine blading and
associated piping.

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Turbine: Converting Steam Energy to Mechanical Power

• Turbine: a device that extracts

thermal energy from steam and
uses it to do mechanical work on a
rotating output shaft.
• Superheated steam from the boiler
at high temperature and high
pressure first gains kinetic energy
passing through a nozzle and then
moves at high velocity toward the
blades of the turbine rotor.
• While delivering work, both the
pressure and temperature of the
steam decrease.

Condenser: Rejecting Heat from Steam

• Condenser: a large heat exchanger
where steam condenses to liquid by
rejecting heat to a cooling medium
• Water as cooling medium: drawn from a
river, lake, or sea, heated in condenser,
and returned to that body of water
• Atmosphere as cooling medium (dry
cooling): using cooling towers that
transfer heat directly into atmosphere
– More expensive
– Uses less water and reduces thermal
pollution
• We think of power plant as a heat
engine, cooling medium as heat sink

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 Rankine Cycle
• Rankine vapor power cycle: ideal cycle for vapor power
plants
• Foundation of stationary power generation for over a
century
• Does not involve any internal irreversibilities: no heat
loss to surroundings, no fluid friction and associated
pressure drops
• Consisting of four processes:
– Isentropic compression in a pump
– Constant pressure heat addition in a boiler
– Isentropic expansion in a turbine
– Constant pressure heat rejection in a condenser

Rankine Cycle

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1 4

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 Rankine Cycle

Energy Analysis of Ideal Rankine Cycle

All four components (pump, boiler, turbine and condenser) in
Rankine cycle operate on steady flow. Apply 1st Law to any
component: Q

hin , vin , zin

m m hout , vout , z out

W
 1   1 
Q  W  m  hout   vout   gzout   m  hin   vin   gzin 
2 2

 2   2 
dQ Q  dW W 
q   qin  qout , w    wout  win
dm m dm m

 qin  qout    win  wout   hout  hin

q, w, h=u+p, u: heat, work, enthalpy, internal energy per unit mass
(p: pressure, : specific volume)

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Energy Analysis of Ideal Rankine Cycle
qin win
hin hout

qout wout
 qin  qout    win  wout 
 hout  hin

Pump: win  h2  h1  1  p2  p1  Boiler: qin  h3  h2

Turbine: wout  h3  h4 Condenser: qout  h4  h1

Thermal Efficiency of Rankine Cycle

Compute net work:

wnet  wout  win  qin  qout

wnet q
th   1  out
qin qin

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 Actual Rankine Cycle
• Actual Rankine cycle deviates from ideal cycle
• Irreversibilities in various components
– Fundamental phenomena: fluid friction and heat
loss
– Viscous pressure drops in components
– More heat required by boiler
– Pump and turbine losses

Actual Rankine Cycle

Deviation of actual vapor power cycle Effect of pump and turbine

from the ideal Rankine cycle irreversibilities on ideal Rankine cycle

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 Pump and Turbine Efficiencies

2a
3
2s

4a
1 4s

Pump Turbine

h2 s  h1 h3  h4 a
Pump Efficiency: pump  Turbine Efficiency: turb 
h2 a  h1 h3  h4 S

Generator and Turbine-Generator Efficiencies

• Turbine is usually packaged together with a

generator.
• Generator efficiency:
Electric power output W
gen   elec,out
Mechanical power input Wshaft,in

• Overall efficiency of turbine-generator:

turb-gen  turbgen

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 Generator Efficiency

Our Experiment

Steam plant

Throttle valve

Gener-
ator

Discharge

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 Our Experiment

Steam Turbine Generator and Load

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