Engineering Thermodynamics

Dr.Tangellapalli Srinivas

Engineering Thermodynamics
Digital Assignment 2
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Answer any five questions and submit the soft copy. (Change any one design variable
and plot the results using any software with plotter, excel or graph sheet).

1. Consider a Carnot heat engine with cylinder-piston arrangement with air as a

working fluid. The initial state designated as 1 is at 100 kPa, 0.01 m3 and 25 C.
The fluid is compressed isothermally to a volume of 0.002 m3 and to 0.001 m3 by
adiabatic compression. The pressure after the followed isothermal expansion is
500 kPa. The cycle is completed by the adiabatic expansion. Find the work and
heat interactions and plot the cycle on p-v diagram on a graph sheet provided to
you with a suitable scale.
2. In a steam generator, water is evaporated at 300 C, while the combustion gas (cp
= 1.08 kJ/kg K) is cooled from 1300C to 320 C. The surroundings are at 30 C.
Determine the loss in available energy due to the above heat transfer per kg of
water evaporated.
3. A pressure vessel has a volume of 1 m3 and contains air at 1.5 MPa, 175 C. The
air is cooled to 25 C by heat transfer to the surroundings at 25 C. Calculate the
availability in the initial and final states and the irreversibility of this process.
Take p0 = 100 kPa.
4. 0.1 m3 of hydrogen initially at 1.2 MPa, 200 C undergoes a reversible isothermal
expansion to 0.1 MPa. Find (a) the work done during the process, (b) the heat
transferred, and (c) the entropy change of the gas.
5. Calculate the change of entropy when 1 kg of air changes from a temperature of
340 K and a volume of 0.15 m3 to a temperature of 550 K and a volume of 0.7 m3.
If the air expands according to the law, pvn = constant, between the same end
states, calculate the heat given to, or extracted from, the air during the expansion,
and show that it is approximately equal to the change of entropy multiplied by the
mean absolute temperature.
6. A heat engine operates between the maximum and minimum temperatures of
671 C and 65 C respectively, with an efficiency of 50% of the appropriate
Carnot efficiency. It drives a heat pump which uses river water at 4.4 C to heat a
block of flats in which the temperature is to be maintained at 21.1 C. Assuming

VIT University, Vellore

Engineering Thermodynamics

Dr.Tangellapalli Srinivas

that a temperature difference of 11.1 C exists between the working fluid and the
river water, on the one hand, and the required room temperature on the other, and
assuming the heat pump to operate on the reversed Carnot cycle, but with a COP
of 50% of the ideal COP, find the heat input to the engine per unit heat output
from the heat pump. Why is direct heating thermodynamically more wasteful?
7. A reversible engine operates between temperatures T1 and T (T1 > T). The energy
rejected from this engine is received by a second reversible engine at the same
temperature T. The second engine rejects energy at temperature T2 (T2 < T). Show
that: (a) Temperature T is the arithmetic mean of temperatures T1 and T2 if the
engines produce the same amount of work output (b) Temperature T is the
geometric mean of temperatures T1 and T2 if the engines have the same cycle
efficiencies.
8. Two Carnot engines A and B are connected in series between two thermal
reservoirs maintained at 1050 K and 100 K respectively. Engine A receives 1680
kJ of heat from the high-temperature reservoir and rejects heat to the Carnot
engine B. Engine B takes in heat rejected by engine A and rejects heat to the lowtemperature reservoir. If engines A and B have equal thermal efficiencies,
determine (a) The heat rejected by engine B (b) The temperature at which heat is
rejected by engine, A (c) The work done during the process by engines, A and B
respectively. If engines A and B deliver equal work, determine (d) The amount of
heat taken in by engine B (e) The efficiencies of engines A and B.
9. A heat pump is to be used to heat a house in winter and then reversed to cool the
house in summer. The interior temperature is to be maintained at 20 C. Heat
transfer through the walls and roof is estimated to be 0.525 kJ/s per degree
temperature difference between the inside and outside. (a) If the outside
temperature in winter is 5C, what is the minimum power required to drive the
heat pump? (b) If the power output is the same as in part (a), what is the maximum
outer temperature for which the inside can be maintained at 20 C?
10. A body of finite mass is originally at temperature T1, which is higher than that of a
reservoir at temperature T2. Suppose an engine operates in a cycle between the
body and the reservoir until it lowers the temperature of the body from T1 to T2,
thus extracting heat Q from the body. If the engine does work W, then it will reject
heat QW to the reservoir at T2. Applying the entropy principle, prove that the
maximum work obtainable from the engine is W (max) = Q T2 (S1 S2) Where
2

VIT University, Vellore

Engineering Thermodynamics

Dr.Tangellapalli Srinivas

S1 S2 is the entropy decrease of the body. If the body is maintained at constant

volume having constant volume heat capacity Cv = 8.4 kJ/K which is independent
of temperature, and if T1 = 373 K and T2 = 303 K, determine the maximum work
obtainable.
11. In a Carnot heat engine, 0.1 kg of helium has been taken for the working fluid
with a source and sink temperature of 750 C and 30 C respectively. At the inlet
of heat addition the pressure is 50 bar. Heat is added at the source temperature is
20 kW. Find the thermodynamic properties (P, V and T) at each and every state
and plot the P-v diagram. The properties of helium are cp = 5.19 kJ/(kg K), cv =
3.12 kJ/(kg K) and ratio of specific heats = 1.6665, molecular weight = 4. Find
heat rejection, work production and maximum efficiency.
12. Carbon dioxide gas is expanded isothermally from a position at 50 bar, 1000 cc
and 800 C till doubles the volume in a closed cylinder. The expansion is
continued adiabatically in the second stage till the volume becomes four times the
initial volume. In the third stage, the heat is rejected isothermally till the volume
gets halved. The cycle is completed by the adiabatic compression. Determine the
changes in heat, work and internal energy of the process.
13. An integrated plant is designed for power and cooling as shown in Fig.1 with
single heat source. The heat supply is 1 MW. Find the power production with the
total efficiency. If the plant is operated only on heat engine mode between 600 C
and 50 C, what is the output and efficiency? What is your inference on the
results?

VIT University, Vellore

Engineering Thermodynamics

Dr.Tangellapalli Srinivas

50 C

600 C

Q1

Q6
W1

W2

HE

W4

Q2

Power
storage
Q3

150 C

Q5

W3
Q4
HE

2 C

Fig.1 Integrated heat engine and refrigerator

Last date of submission: 5th November 2016

VIT University, Vellore