MCL142 Thermal Science for Electrical Engineers

Tutorial - 3
Property Data and Tables February 19, 2020

1. A closed rigid container of volume 0.5m3 is placed on a hot plate. Initially the container holds a two phase
mixture of liquid water and water vapour at P1 =1 bar with a quality of 0.5. After heating, the pressure in
the container is P2 = 1.5 bar. Indicate the initial and the final states on a T-v diagram and determine
(a) the temperature in each state
(b) the mass of vapour present in each state
(c) If heating continued, determine the pressure when the container holds only saturated vapour.
2. Determine the phase or phases in a system consisting of H2 O at the following conditions and sketch P − v
and T − v diagrams showing the location of each state.
(a) p=5 bar, T=151.9o C
(b) p=5 bar, T=200o C
(c) p= 2.5 MPa, T=200o C
(d) p= 1 bar, T=-12o C
3. A closed vessel with a volume of 0.018 m3 contains 12 kg of refrigerant R-134a at 10 bar. Determine its
temperature, quality, internal energy, enthalpy and entropy.
4. An instant electric geyser of 6 litre capacity is filled with 5 litre of water at 300 C. A child accidentally
switches on the electric current without opening the valves allowing inflow and outflow of water.
(a)If the heating rod is of 3 kW capacity what will be the pressure inside the gayser after one hour?
(b) If the outflow valve is open but inflow valve is closed, how much of steam would have escaped from the
outflow port during this time?
5. An inventor claims to have designed a new type of adiabatic air compressor with very low power input. As
an illustration of its capabilities the following operating conditions are quoted in his patent papers:
Inlet state 1 bar 300 C
Final state 2 bar 650 C
Is the claim tenable?
6. Air initially at 10 bar, 1500 K and 10m3 volume expands to 5 times the volume in:
(a) a reversible isothermal process
(b) a reversible adiabatic process
(c) an irreversible adabatic process where the restraining pressure is 1.5 bar
Determine the final temperature, pressure and the work done by the gas in each process. Given cp =
1.2 kJ/kgK
7. Solve above problem using ideal gas tables and compare the results.
8. Carbon dioxide is being compressed from initial conditions of 1 bar and 300 K to a pressure of 50 bar. The
compression process is irreversible with work input being 30% more than that in isentropic compression.
Find the final temperature and the work input using ideal gas tables.

Work, Heat and First Law in Closed Systems

9. A pressure cooker of 5 litre capacity is filled with 2 kg of water at 300 C and put on a gas stove. Estimate
the amount of water that will have converted into steam when the pressure relief valve blows off for the first
time at a pressure of 2.0 bar. During this heating process,which takes 10 minutes, the rate of heat loss from
the cooker can be calculated as Q = 10(T − 30) W
Where T is the temperature of water in o C. Estimate the heat input during this time assuming that the
temperature of water varies linearly with time. Neglect the effect of air initially present in the cooker.
10. Steam at 10 bar and 3000 C is trapped in a piston cylinder arrangement at an initial volume of 0.1 m3 . It
expands to a final volume of 0.2 m3 , but due to friction between the piston and cylinder the work output is
only 80% of the work that would have been obtained in a reversible process between the same end states. If
the entropy at the end of the process is the same as in the begining, estimate the heat transfer during the
process.

11. A cylindrical balloon of 10 cm diameter and 10 cm length is filled with air at 1.2 bar at a temperature of
350 C. It is heated till both the diameter and length increase to 20 cm. During the heating process the
pressure remains constant. Estimate the heat transfer and entropy change. Take air as an ideal gas with a
specific heat of 1 kJ/kgK.

12. A 10 m high cylinder, with a cross-sectional area of 0.1 m2 , has a massless piston with water at 20o C on top
of it, as shown in figure 1a. Air at 300 K, with a volume of 0.3 m3 , under the piston, is heated so that the
piston moves up, spilling the water out over the side. Find the total heat transfer to the air when all the
water has been pushed out. Neglect thickness of piston. Assume ideal gas behaviour of air, and standard
values for g and P0 .

(a) (b)

Figure 1

13. A 10 m high cylinder, with a cross-sectional area of 0.1 m2 , has a thin 198.5 kg piston with water at 20o C
on top of it, and 2 kg of water at 20o C below it, as shown in figure 1b. Water under the piston is heated so
that it expands and pushes the piston up, spilling the water out over the side. Find the total heat transfer
to the water under the piston when all the water above it has been pushed out, and the state (p,v,T) of
water under the piston at the end of the process.

14. Oxygen at 300 kPa and 100o C is in a piston/cylinder arrangement with a volume of 0.1 m3 . It is now
compressed in a polytropic process with exponent 1.2 to a final temperature of 200o C. Calculate the heat
transfer for the process.

15. An air pistol contains compressed air in a small cylinder, as shown in figure 2a. Assume that the volume
is 1 cm3 , the pressure is 1 MPa, and the temperature is 27o C when armed. A bullet, with a mass m=15g,
acts as a piston initially held by a pin (trigger). When released, the air expands in an isothermal process
(T=constant). If the air pressure is 0.1 MPa in the cylinder as the bullet leaves the gun, find

(a) The final volume and the mass of air.

(b) The work done by the air and work done on the atmosphere
(c) The work done to the bullet and the bullet exit velocity

16. Consider a small air pistol with a cylinder volume of 1 cm3 at 250 kPa and 27o C. The bullet acts as a piston
initially held by a trigger, shown in figure 2b. The bullet is released so that the air expands in an adiabatic

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 process. If the pressure should be 100 kPa as the bullet leaves the cylinder, find the final volume and the
work done by the air.

(a) (b)

Figure 2

17. An insulated cylinder-piston setup contains carbon dioxide at 120 kPa and 400 K. The gas is compressed
to 2.5 MPa in a reversible adiabatic process. Calculate the final temperature and the work done on the gas
per unit mass, assuming

(a) Variable specific heat, Cp = C0 + C1 θ + C2 θ2 + C3 θ3 kJ/kg K where C0 =0.45; C1 =1.67; C2 =-1.27;

C3 =0.39 where θ = T /1000; T in Kelvin.
(b) Constant specific heat, the value given at 100 kPa and 25o C as Cpo = 0.842 kJ/kg K.
(c) Constant specific heat, value at an intermediate temperature: use hCO2 (400K) =303.76 kJ/kg K;
hCO2 (500K) = 401.52 kJ/kg K.

Open Systems

18. In a jet engine a flow of air at 1000 K, 200 kPa, and 40 m/s enters a nozzle and exits at 500 m/s, 90 kPa.
What is the exit temperature, assuming no heat loss? Use ideal gas air tables.

19. R-134a is throttled in a line flowing at 25o C, 750 kPa with negligible kinetic energy to a pressure of 165
kPa. Find the exit temperature and the ratio of the exit pipe diameter to that of the inlet pipe (Dex /Din )
so that the velocity stays constant.

20. A small, high-speed turbine operating on compressed air produces a power output of 100W. The inlet state
is 400 kPa, 50o C, and the exit state is 150 kPa,30o C. Assuming the velocities to be low and the process to
be adiabatic, find the required mass flow rate of air through the turbine.

21. A liquid water turbine receives 2 kg/s water at 2000 kPa, 20o C with a velocity of 15 m/s. The exit is at 100
kPa, 20o C, and very low velocity. Find the specific work and the power produced.

22. A small turbine, shown in Fig. 3a, is operated at part load by throttling a 0.25-kg/s steam supply at 1.4
MPa and 250o C down to 1.1 MPa before it enters the turbine, and the exhaust is at 10 kPa. If the turbine
produces 110 kW, find the exhaust temperature (and quality if saturated).
23. The air conditioner in a house or a car has a cooler that brings atmospheric air from 30o C to10o C, both
states at 101 kPa. For a flow rate of 0.5 kg/s find the rate of heat transfer.

24. Cogeneration is often used where a steam supply is needed for industrial process energy. Assume that a
supply of 5 kg/s steam at 0.5 MPa is needed. Rather than generating this from a pump and boiler, the setup
in Fig. 3b is used to extract the supply from the high-pressure turbine. If the inflow is 20 kg/s of steam at
10 MPa and 500o C, and the turbine exhaust is at 20 kPa and a dryness fraction of 0.9, find the power the
turbine now cogenerates in this process.

25. An evacuated 150 litre tank is connected to a line flowing air at room temperature, 25o C, and 8 MPa
pressure. The valve is opened, allowing air to flow into the tank until the pressure inside is 6 MPa. At this

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 (a) (b)

Figure 3

point the valve is closed. This filling process occurs rapidly and is essentially adiabatic. The tank is then
placed in storage, where it eventually returns to room temperature. What is the final pressure?

26. One technique for operating a steam turbine in partload power output is to throttle the steam to a lower
pressure before it enters the turbine, as shown in Fig. 3a. The steam line conditions are 2 MPa, 400C, and
the turbine exhaust pressure is fixed at 10 kPa. Assuming the expansion inside the turbine is reversible and
adiabatic, determine the specific turbine work for no throttling. To what pressure should steam be throttled
to obtain 80% of this work at part load? Show both processes in a T-s diagram.