Chapter 7

Application of Thermodynamics to
Flow Process
.
 Turbines
• Water wheels were the original water turbines.
Today, the same principle is used to make
electricity in hydroelectric power plants. The
basic idea of hydroelectric power is that a dam is
built on a river to harness its energy.
• Instead of the river flowing freely from its
mountain source toward the sea, it is made to fall
through a height (called a head) so it picks up
speed (in other words, its potential energy is
converted to kinetic energy), then channel it
through a pipe called a penstock past a turbine
and generator.
 Turbines
• Hydroelectricity is effectively a three-step energy
conversion:
• The river's original potential energy is turned
into kinetic energy when the water falls through a
height.
• The kinetic energy in the moving water is
converted into mechanical energy by a water
turbine.
• The spinning water turbine drives
a generator that turns the mechanical
energy into electrical energy.
 Steam turbines
• In steam turbines there are two basic parts,
rotor and stator. Rotor means rotating part
while stator means fixed part.
• Nozzle is the stator part of turbine which is
fixed.
• Types of steam turbines based on the shapes
of rotor blades
Impulse turbine
Reaction turbines
 Steam turbines

(a)
(b)
This pelton water wheel is an example of impulse A reaction turbine turns when
turbine. It spins as a high-pressure water jet fires steam hits its curved blades
into the buckets around the edge from the nozzle
on the right. Steam impulse turbines work a bit
like this.
 Steam turbines
• In one type of turbine, the rotating blades are
shaped like buckets. High-velocity jets of
incoming steam from carefully shaped nozzles
kick into the buckets, pushing them around
with a series of impulses, and bouncing off to
the other side at a similar speed but much-
reduced pressure (compared to the incoming
jet). This design is called an impulse
turbine and it's particularly good at extracting
energy from high-pressure steam.
 Steam turbines
• In an alternative design called a reaction
turbine, there's a second set of stationary
blades attached to the inside of the turbine
case. These help to speed up and direct the
steam onto the rotating blades at just the
right angle, before it leaves with reduced
temperature and pressure but broadly the
same speed as it had when it entered.
Steam turbines
stator Rotor
blades blades
 Steam turbines
• In practice, steam turbines are a bit more
complex than suggested so far. Instead of a single
set of blades on the rotor, there are usually a
number of different sets, each one helping to
extract a little bit more energy from the steam
before it's exhausted. Each set of blades is called
a stage and works by either impulse or reaction,
and a typical turbine can have a mixture of
impulse and reaction stages, all mounted on the
same rotor axle and all turning the generator at
the same time.
 Gas Turbines
• Efficiency of conventional fossil fuel steam
power plants rarely exceeds 35%, however,
efficiencies greater 50% can be realized in
combined cycle plants with dual power
generation.
From advanced technology gas turbine
From steam power cycle operating on heat
recovered from hot turbine exhaust gases.
 Working of Turbines
It is a rotary steady state machine whose purpose is to produce shaft work at
the expense of the pressure of the working fluid.
The expansion of a gas in a nozzle to produce a high-velocity stream is a
process that converts internal energy into kinetic energy.
This kinetic energy is in turn converted into shaft work when the stream
impinges on blades attached to a rotating shaft. Thus a turbine (or expander)
consists of alternate sets of nozzles and rotating blades through which vapor or
gas flows in a steady-state expansion process whose overall effect is the
efficient conversion of the internal energy of a high-pressure stream into shaft
work.
When steam provides the motive force as in a power plant, the
device is called a turbine; when a high-pressure gas, such as
ammonia or ethylene in a chemical or petrochemical plant, is
the working fluid, the device is often called an expander.
Equation (2.30 and 2.31), energy balance equation, first law for a
steady state, steady flow process with one inlet and one outlet is
an appropriate energy balances across an expander.

However, potential-energy term can be omitted because there is

little change in elevation. Moreover, in any properly designed
turbine, heat transfer is negligible and the inlet and exit pipes are
sized to make fluid velocities roughly equal. For those conditions,
Eq. (2.30 and 2.31) reduce to
Usually, the inlet conditions T1 and P1 and the discharge
pressure P2 are fixed. Thus in Eq. (7.14) only H1 is
known; both H2 and Ws are unknown, and the energy
balance equation alone does not allow their
calculation.
However, if the fluid in the turbine expands reversibly
and adiabatically, the process is isentropic, and S2 = S1.
This second equation fixes the final state of the fluid
and determines H2. For this special case, Ws is given by
Eq. (7.14), written:
The shaft work Ws (isentropic) is the maximum that
can be obtained from an adiabatic turbine with given
inlet conditions and given discharge pressure.
Actual turbines produce less work, because the actual
expansion process is irreversible.
Values of efficiency for properly designed turbines or
expanders usually range from 0.7 to 0.8.
We therefore define a turbine efficiency as:
 Compression Processes
Just as expansion processes result in pressure reductions in a
flowing fluid, so compression processes bring about pressure
increases.
Compressors, pumps, fans, blowers, and vacuum pumps are
all devices designed for this purpose.
They are vital for the transport of fluids, for fluidization of
particulate solids, for bringing fluids to the proper pressure for
reaction or processing, etc.
The compression of gases may be accomplished in
equipment with rotating blades (like a turbine
operating in reverse) or in cylinders with reciprocating
pistons. Rotary equipment is used for high-volume
flow where the discharge pressure is not too high. For
high pressures, reciprocating compressors are required.
In a compression process, the isentropic work is the minimum
shaft work required for compression of a gas from a given
initial state to a given discharge pressure.
Compressor efficiencies are usually in the range of 0.7 to 0.8.
Problems
 Pumps
Liquids are usually moved by pumps, generally rotating
equipment. The same equations apply to adiabatic pumps
as to adiabatic compressors.
Application of Eq. (7.14) for the calculation of Ws = ΔH
requires values of the enthalpy of compressed
(subcooled) liquids, and these are seldom available. The
fundamental property relation, Eq. (6.8), provides an
alternative. For an isentropic process,
 Ws( isentropic) = (ΔH)s = V ∫d P

The usual assumption for liquids (at conditions well

removed from the critical point) is that V is
independent of P. Integration then gives:
 Ejectors
Ejectors remove gases or vapors from an evacuated
space and compress them for discharge at a higher
pressure. Where the mixing of the gases or vapors
with the driving fluid is allowable, ejectors are used.
It is the simplified type of vacuum pump with no
moving parts or piston/cylinder arrangement to
produce vacuum. An ejector consists of an inner
converging/diverging nozzle through which the
driving fluid (commonly steam) is fed, and an outer,
larger nozzle through which both the extracted gases
or vapors and the driving fluid pass.
The momentum of the high-speed fluid leaving the
driving nozzle is partly transferred to the extracted
gases or vapors, and the mixture velocity is therefore
less than that of the driving fluid leaving the smaller
nozzle.
Steam, N2 gas, Inert gases, Compressed air, High
pressure water or High Pressure liquid is used as
driving fluid.
Advantages.
Easy to operate, require less maintenance, installation
cost is low, suitable to handle any type of gas or vapor.
Available in many material of construction.
If gas or vapor are non corrosive then diffusers are
usually constructed of cast iron and steam nozzle is
made of stainless steel. For corrosive gases and vapors
materials such as stainless steel alloys.
Problems.
Steam nozzles can be choked and scaling in the jacket

Single-stage ejector