Entransy analyses of heat–work conversion systems with inner irreversible thermodynamic cycles

In this paper, we try to use the entransy theory to analyze the heat–work conversion systems with inner irreversible thermodynamic cycles. First, the inner irreversible thermodynamic cycles are analyzed. The influences of different inner irreversible factors on entransy loss are discussed. We find that the concept of entransy loss can be used to analyze the inner irreversible thermodynamic cycles. Then, we analyze the common heat–work conversion systems with inner irreversible thermodynamic cycles. As an example, the heat–work conversion system in which the working fluid of the thermodynamic cycles is heated and cooled by streams is analyzed. Our analyses show that larger entransy loss leads to larger output work when the total heat flow from the high temperature heat source and the corresponding equivalent temperature are fixed.Some numerical cases are presented, and the results verify the theoretical analyses. On the other hand, it is also found that larger entransy loss does not always lead to larger output work when the preconditions are not satisfied.

An effective thermodynamic transformation analysis method for actual irreversible cycle

An effective thermodynamic transformation analysis method was proposed in this study. According to the phenomenon of ex- ergy consumption always coupling with heat transfer process, the effective thermodynamic temperatures were defined, then the actual power cycle or refrigeration/heat pump cycle was transformed into the equivalent reversible Carnot or reverse Carnot cycles for thermodynamic analysis. The derived effective thermodynamic temperature of the hot reservoir of the equivalent reverse Camot cycle is the basis of the proposed method. The combined diagram of TR-h and TR-q was adopted for the analy- sis of the system performance and the exergy consumption, which takes advantage of the visual expression of the heat/work exchange and the enthalpy change, and is convenient for the calculation of the coefficient of performance and exergy con- sumptions. Take a heat pump water heater with refrigerant of R22 for example, the proposed method was systematically intro- duced, and the fitting formulas of the effective thermodynamic temperatures were given as demonstration. The results show that the proposed method has advantage and well application foreground in the performance simulation and estimation under the variable working conditions.