Affiliation:
1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Liverpool University.
Abstract
The use of availability in the analysis of engineering power plants is extended to the study of plants with ‘external combustion’, in which heat is transferred from high temperature products of external combustion to an internal closed cycle. A rational definition of plant efficiency is the work output from the internal cycle divided by the maximum work that could be obtained in the change from external reactants to external products at constant (ambient) pressure and temperature. It is shown that the rational efficiency is dependent upon the ratio of the thermal capacities of internal and external fluid flows, and the specific work of the internal cycle.