Rankine cycle
A thermodynamic cycle that converts heat into work by vaporizing a working fluid, expanding it through a turbine, condensing it, and pumping it back.
Rankine cycle processes: The four idealized steps of the Rankine cycle: pumping, heating and vaporizing, expansion, and condensation. These steps describe the fluid’s path through the cycle.
Thermodynamic cycle: A sequence of thermodynamic processes that returns a working system to its initial state. The Rankine cycle is one specific heat-engine cycle.
Steam power plant: A power station that generates electricity by converting heat into steam-turbine work. Its boiler, turbine, condenser, and pump commonly implement the cycle.
Brayton cycle: A thermodynamic cycle in which a gas is compressed, heated, expanded, and cooled, often at nearly constant pressure. Gas turbines use continuous gas flow rather than Rankine-cycle boiling and condensation.
Steam turbine: A turbine that extracts mechanical work as steam expands through moving blades. Steam expansion in the turbine supplies most of the cycle’s useful work.
Phase transition: A change between physical states of matter, such as liquid and vapor. Boiling and condensation let the working fluid absorb and reject heat efficiently.
Coal-fired power station: A power station that burns coal to produce heat for electricity generation. Coal combustion can supply the boiler heat in a Rankine-cycle plant.
Carnot cycle: An ideal reversible heat-engine cycle that sets the maximum efficiency between two thermal reservoirs. It provides an efficiency benchmark that practical Rankine cycles cannot attain.
Condenser: A heat exchanger that removes heat from a vapor and turns it into liquid. It closes the cycle by condensing the turbine exhaust.
Enthalpy: A thermodynamic state property equal to internal energy plus pressure times volume. Enthalpy differences track heat transfer and turbine or pump work in steady flow.