Power Plant Design
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This project was used to further develop the students' knowledge on Rankine cycles by completing a preliminary design and analysis of a power plant cycle given certain constraints. The Rankine cycle is the ideal cycle to use in a vapor power plant. The thermal efficiency of the Rankine cycle can be increased by increasing the boiler temperature, but this also increases the amount of unwanted moisture in the steam. To get rid of this moisture, the steam is expanded in the turbine in two stages and reheated in between. This "reheat" process is used modernly in steam power plants. The addition of such a reheat cycle in a power plant can improve the efficiency of the cycle by as much as four to five percent. This is because the average temperature at which the heat is added to the steam has been increased. This temperature can be increased even more by simply adding more reheaters. The increase in efficiency by adding a second reheater is only half of that as adding just one (engel, 527). So at some point, the increase in the cost to operate must outweigh the added benefit which is where the cost-benefit analysis comes into account...