First- and second-law analyses of thermal power plants in connection with irreversibility ratio

The rigorous assessment of thermal characteristics of power plants is important for the cost-effective operations. Thermodynamic analysis of the first- and the second-law efficiencies can be merged through the irreversibility ratio (IR = T-0(S) over dot(gen)/(Q) over dot(H)), which provides useful information on the thermal system characteristics and reduces the efforts for the thermal analysis. In this study, thermodynamic analysis of a power plant is carried out and the first- and the second-law efficiencies are formulated simultaneously incorporating the irreversibility ratio. The maximum output power and the maximum first- and second-law efficiencies are formulated. The effect of temperature ratio and irreversibility ratio on the output power as well as the first- and the second-law efficiencies is investigated. It is found that the influence of the irreversibility ratio is higher on the second-law efficiency than that of the first-law efficiency, which is more pronounced at low values of the temperature ratio (theta <= 0.6).