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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.
Single-stage ejector