DOI: 10.1115/1.4058365 ISSN: 0097-6822

Analysis of Power-Plant Performance Based on the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Wm. L. DeBaufre

Abstract

The author shows that the commonly used heat balance based on the first law of thermodynamics does not allocate the losses in a power plant in such a manner as to reveal the best points of attack on the problem of improving power-plant economy. The application of the second law gives a quite different statement of the losses of energy from the coal pile to the stack and engine exhaust. As an example, the performance of a locomotive is analyzed by both the first- and second-law methods.

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