This simulator models a superheated steam power plant: a pump pressurizes condensed water, a boiler superheats it to steam, a turbine extracts work as the steam expands, and a condenser rejects heat to return the cycle to saturated liquid. Trace all four state points, compare turbine work against pump demand, and see how condenser pressure and turbine losses affect net output and exhaust moisture.
• A real-time 3D cutaway power-island workbench (feed pump, boiler/superheater, multi-stage turbine and shaft, and condenser with cooling loop) with home view, focus-selected-part, auto-rotate, expand, show/hide outer shell and hide-labels scene tools; state numbers match a reference T-s diagram and shaft rotation/flow speed are illustrative. • Experiment controls: boiler pressure, boiler exit (superheat) temperature, condenser pressure, turbine isentropic efficiency and pump isentropic efficiency sliders, plus pause/resume, single-step and 60 s-step buttons, six playback speeds for the flow animation, and restart/animate/stop actions. • A Curves & measurements analysis tab with two live charts (specific work allocation between turbine and pump; a condenser-pressure sweep), the underlying first-law cycle equations, and snapshot readouts (turbine work, pump work, net work, heat input, thermal efficiency and turbine exhaust quality/moisture). • An Experiments tab with four guided fixtures (a reference steam plant, a condenser backpressure change, a wet-expansion diagnostic showing exhaust moisture, and an ideal-versus-lossy turbine comparison) and a Model verification bench with a timestamped event log and copyable trial report. • A Learn & assess tab with four guided lessons, a knowledge-check quiz with reset, and a written model-scope statement linking to a Rankine-cycle reference.
The Rankine cycle moves water and steam through four distinct devices, each producing one of the cycle's four state-point transitions: the pump raises pressure (state 1 to 2, nearly isentropic and requiring relatively little work since it compresses liquid rather than vapor), the boiler adds heat at constant pressure to produce superheated steam (state 2 to 3), the turbine expands the steam and extracts shaft work (state 3 to 4), and the condenser rejects heat at constant pressure back to saturated liquid (state 4 to 1). The reference-steam-plant experiment walks through this full loop at representative conditions.
Because pump work is small relative to turbine work — a direct consequence of pumping liquid rather than compressing vapor — the net work output is dominated by the turbine, and the specific-work-allocation chart makes this asymmetry visible at a glance.
Real turbines and pumps are not perfectly isentropic; the simulator applies prescribed isentropic efficiencies to both, and the ideal-versus-lossy-turbine experiment shows directly how turbine losses reduce net work and shift the exhaust state without changing the boiler conditions. Condenser pressure matters enormously: lowering it increases the pressure ratio the turbine can exploit and raises efficiency, but it can also push the turbine exhaust further into the two-phase region, producing wetter exhaust — the condenser-backpressure and wet-expansion-diagnostic experiments isolate this trade-off directly.
This is a steady, simple superheated Rankine cycle with saturated-liquid condenser outlet, adiabatic pump and turbine, prescribed isentropic efficiencies, and no pipe pressure drops or heat leaks. Water and steam properties come from IAPWS-IF97 values sampled at 2 K intervals plus exact saturation endpoints, linearly interpolated between the supported discrete pressures. The model excludes reheat, regeneration, fuel consumption, generator electrical losses, startup transients, governor response and cooling-water dynamics. The T-s plot connects state points with straight guide lines rather than exact process paths, and is not used to calculate cycle area. Rotor and flow motion are illustrative — changing playback speed does not change the thermodynamic results. The animation runs for up to one simulated hour, and controls start a fresh trial.
The pump compresses liquid water, which is nearly incompressible and requires relatively little work to pressurize. The turbine, by contrast, expands compressible superheated steam across a large pressure and volume change, extracting far more work in the process — this asymmetry is why net cycle work is dominated by the turbine.
Lowering condenser pressure widens the pressure ratio available to the turbine, generally increasing thermal efficiency. However, it can also push the turbine's exhaust state further into the two-phase (wet steam) region, producing lower exhaust quality — a trade-off explored directly in the condenser-backpressure and wet-expansion-diagnostic experiments.
IAPWS-IF97 industrial-formulation water and steam properties, sampled at 2 K intervals with exact saturation endpoints and linearly interpolated at the supported discrete pressures — not a simplified ideal-gas approximation.
No. The T-s plot connects the four state points with straight guide lines for visual reference only; it is explicitly not used to calculate cycle area or work, which are instead computed directly from the state-point enthalpies and the prescribed component efficiencies.