5
Single-Flash Steam Power Plants 95

humidity, and picks up more water vapor as the condensate partially evaporates. The
evaporation process requires heat that comes from the water itself, thereby dropping
its temperature.
The internal process involves the exchange of both heat and mass between the air
and the water. The following First Law equation describes the overall operation of the
tower, excluding the fan and assuming steady flow and overall adiabatic conditions:
m _ 8 h8 5 m
_ 7 h7 2 m _ d hd 2 m
_ a ha 1 m
_ b hb ð5:20Þ
There are two other equations needed to analyze the process: mass conservation of
water and mass conservation of air. Recall that both the entering and leaving air
streams contain water in the vapor phase (in different percentages). The conservation
equations are:
_ wa 5 m
_71m
m _81m
_b1m
_ wd ðConservation of waterÞ ð5:21Þ
m _ aa
_ ad 5 m ðConservation of dry airÞ ð5:22Þ

where the terms m _ wa and m_ wd represent the water content of the incoming and leaving
air streams, respectively. These can be found from the specific humidity, ω, of the air
streams:
_ wa 5 ωa m
m _a ð5:23Þ
and
m _d
_ wd 5 ωd m ð5:24Þ
These five governing equations are used with the properties of steam, water, and moist
air, either in tabular, graphic (psychrometric chart), or electronic form to determine
the various flow rates needed for given design conditions.
Cooling towers are also characterized by two other parameters: the range and the
approach. The range is the change in water temperature as it flows through the tower,
namely, T7 2 T8, with reference to Fig. 5.11; the approach is the difference between
the water outlet temperature and the wet-bulb temperature of the incoming air,
namely, T8 2 Twb,a. Since the ideal outlet water temperature is the wet-bulb tempera-
ture of the incoming air, the approach is a measure of how closely the tower
approaches ideal performance, i.e., zero approach or T8 5 Twb,a.
Cooling towers for geothermal power plants are much larger in cooling capacity
than for conventional fossil or nuclear power plants of the same power rating.
Since the cooling tower must be sized to reject the heat of condensation of the
geothermal steam, we can examine the ratio of that heat, Q_ o , to the power output of
the plant, W_ e.
Let us consider first a power plant that operates on a cycle. In Chapter 8 we will
cover such geothermal plants in detail. Here it is necessary only to understand that for
any cyclic power plant, the First Law of thermodynamics says that the net heat added
to the cycle must equal the net work delivered by the cycle, or in terms of thermal and
mechanical power,
Q_ in 2 Q_ o 5 W
_e ð5:25Þ