# How to Calculate Thermal Efficiency of Rankine Cycle

How to Calculate Thermal Efficiency of Rankine Cycle – The thermal efficiency of the rankine cycle is the ratio between the work produced by the steam turbine that has been reduced by the pump work, with the incoming heat energy from the boiler. Before further discussing the thermal efficiency of the rankine cycle, it is easier to understand by discuss the processes first.

The rankine cycle is one form of energy conservation laws. The source of energy that exists on earth is converted into another beneficial form of energy to humans. Heat energy is used as the energy source of the rankine cycle process. This energy can be taken from the burning of fossil fuels, geothermal usage, or from nuclear reactions.

The heat energy from the above sources is transferred to the working fluid, such as water. When the fuel used is coal then this process occurs in the boiler. Through the diagram above D-E-A-F, the D-E line, water is still in liquid form, on the E-A line boiling process occurs and the water phase is liquid and steam mixture, while on the A-F line the water working fluid has water-vapor phase and got further heating process to obtain superheated point. The calorific value absorbed by water vapor can be calculated using the following formula:

Qin = m (hF – hD)

The superheated steam produced by the boiler then goes to the steam turbine. Heat energy from water vapor is then converted into motion energy, shown by the F-G line in the image above. The reduction of the enthalpy can be used to calculate the magnitude of the motion energy produced by the steam turbine using the following formula:

Wout = m (hF – hG)

The steam coming out from the steam turbine enters the condenser to be condensed back into liquid phase. Here we can see there is amount of heat energy not converted into motion energy, because the energy is used to convert the water into steam (latent heat). The decreases of the enthalpy (G-C line) can be used to calculate the thermal energy of condensed water using the following formula:

Qout = m (hG – hC)

The next process is pumping the condensate water to increase its pressure before entering the boiler. Shown by the C-D line, water does not experience much increase in enthalpy. This means that the energy given to the air is not too significant. Incoming energy values ​​can be calculated using the following formula:

Win = m (hD – hC)

So now we can calculate the thermal efficiency by using the formula below:

$\eta _{thermal}=\dfrac {W_{out}-W_{in}}{Q_{in}}$

eBook Rankine Efficiency Cycle Calculations: