Closed cyclic power plant

It is important first to distinguish between a closed cyclic power plant (or heat engine) and an open circuit power plant. In the former, fluid passes continuously round a closed circuit, through a thermodynamic cycle in which heat ((2b) is received from a source at a high temperature, heat (Qa) >s rejected to a sink at low temperature and work output (IT) is delivered, usually to drive an electric generator. 

Usually, a gas turbine plant operates on open circuit , with internal combustion (Fig. 1.3). Air and fuel pass across the single control surface into the compressor and combustion chamber, respectively, and the combustion products leave the control surface after expansion through the turbine. The open circuit plant cannot be said to operate on a thermodynamic cycle however, its performance is often assessed by treating it as equivalent to a closed cyclic power plant, but care must be taken in such an approach. 

Fig. 1.2 shows a gas turbine power plant operating on a closed circuit. The dotted chain control surface (F) surrounds a cyclic gas turbine power plant (or cyclic heat engine) through which air or gas circulates, and the combustion chamber is located within the second open control surface (Z). Heat (2b is transferred from Z to Y, and heat (2a is rejected from Y. The two control volumes form a complete power plant. 

The Joule-Brayton (JB) constant pressure closed cycle is the basis of the cyclic gas turbine power plant, with steady flow of air (or gas) through a compressor, heater, turbine, cooler within a closed circuit (Fig. 1.4). The turbine drives the compressor and a generator delivering the electrical power, heat is supplied at a constant pressure and is also rejected at constant pressure. The temperature-entropy diagram for this cycle is also... 

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