Microsoft Word - Cengel and Boles TOC _2-03-05_.doc

9–3 ■ AIR-STANDARD ASSUMPTIONS

In gas power cycles, the working fluid remains a gas throughout the entire

cycle. Spark-ignition engines, diesel engines, and conventional gas turbines

are familiar examples of devices that operate on gas cycles. In all these

engines, energy is provided by burning a fuel within the system boundaries.

That is, they are internal combustion engines.Because of this combustion

process, the composition of the working fluid changes from air and fuel to

combustion products during the course of the cycle. However, considering

that air is predominantly nitrogen that undergoes hardly any chemical reac-

tions in the combustion chamber, the working fluid closely resembles air at

all times.

Even though internal combustion engines operate on a mechanical cycle

(the piston returns to its starting position at the end of each revolution), the

working fluid does not undergo a complete thermodynamic cycle. It is

thrown out of the engine at some point in the cycle (as exhaust gases)

instead of being returned to the initial state. Working on an open cycle is the

characteristic of all internal combustion engines.

The actual gas power cycles are rather complex. To reduce the analysis to

a manageable level, we utilize the following approximations, commonly

known as the air-standard assumptions:

1.The working fluid is air, which continuously circulates in a closed loop

and always behaves as an ideal gas.

2.All the processes that make up the cycle are internally reversible.

3.The combustion process is replaced by a heat-addition process from an

external source (Fig. 9–9).

4.The exhaust process is replaced by a heat-rejection process that restores

the working fluid to its initial state.

Another assumption that is often utilized to simplify the analysis even

more is that air has constant specific heats whose values are determined at

492 | Thermodynamics

Analysis The T-sdiagram of a Carnot cycle is redrawn in Fig. 9–8. All four

processes that comprise the Carnot cycle are reversible, and thus the area

under each process curve represents the heat transfer for that process. Heat

is transferred to the system during process 1-2 and rejected during process

3-4. Therefore, the amount of heat input and heat output for the cycle can

be expressed as

since processes 2-3 and 4-1 are isentropic, and thus s 2 
s 3 and s 4 
s 1.

Substituting these into Eq. 9–1, we see that the thermal efficiency of a

Carnot cycle is

Discussion Notice that the thermal efficiency of a Carnot cycle is indepen-

dent of the type of the working fluid used (an ideal gas, steam, etc.) or

whether the cycle is executed in a closed or steady-flow system.

hth

wnet

qin

 1 

qout

qin

 1 

TL 1 s 2 s 12

TH 1 s 2 s 12

 1 

TL

TH

qin
TH 1 s 2 s 12 ¬and¬qout
TL 1 s 3 s 42
TL 1 s 2 s 12

T

s

1 2

4 3

qin

qout

TH

TL

s 1 = s 4 s 2 = s 3

FIGURE 9–8

T-sdiagram for Example 9–1.

Combustion

chamber

COMBUSTION

PRODUCTS

AIR

FUEL

AIR AIR

(a) Actual

(b) Ideal

Heating

section

HEAT

FIGURE 9–9

The combustion process is replaced by
a heat-addition process in ideal cycles.