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Energy conversion efficiency of the steam engine.

Physics Asked by user141245 on December 15, 2020

The path followed by water in steam engines can be described as the following:

From A to B: Liquid water is compressed in pump, it receives a work $ W_{A rightarrow B} $.

From B to C: Water is heated in a boiler where it receives heat $ Q $ without any work, and from where it gets out as vapor.

From C to D: In the turbine, water gives the amount of work $ W_{C rightarrow D} $ without gaining or losing heat.

From D to A: Water is cooled in a condenser, without work transfer, where it goes back to its original state and properties, to go the pump again to get compressed and so on…

Q: What is the energy conversion efficiency $ eta $ of the steam engine?

We know that it is the ratio of the useful output energy and the input energy.

In this case, the output energy is the work $ W_{C rightarrow D} $ done by the water during the phase $ C rightarrow D $ , and the input is the work of compression $ W_{A rightarrow B} $ and the heat Q.

In the solution of the problem, the energy conversion efficiency is expressed as: $$ eta = frac{W_{A rightarrow B} + W_{C rightarrow D} }{Q} $$

Can you explain to me why it is not: $ eta = frac{W_{C rightarrow D} }{Q + W_{A rightarrow B} } $ ?

Thank you.

One Answer

The first thing to realize is that W_AB is a negative work, so putting it in the numerator correctly reduces the efficiency, but putting in the denominator would incorrectly increase the efficiency. Maybe you want to think of it as a positive number and put it in the denominator, but that's just not how efficiency is defined, it is defined as the net work obtained (so the sum of the positive and negative W in your example), divided by the heat extracted, Q.

Answered by Ken G on December 15, 2020

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