Power and Industrial Plant Engineering Review Elements

Essential vocabulary flashcards covering Power and Industrial Plant Engineering (PIPE) elements, refrigeration, fluid mechanics, power cycles, and fundamental thermodynamics.

Rotary Dryer

The most common industrial dryer, consisting of a rotating cylinder inside which wet materials flow while coming into direct contact with hot gas.

Relative Humidity

The ratio of the mass of water vapor present in a given volume of air to the mass of water vapor required to saturate that same volume of air at the same temperature.

Absorber

The component of an absorption refrigeration system in which the refrigerant vapor is absorbed by a liquid solution while being cooled by cooling water.

Capillary Tube

A fixed-restriction refrigerant throttling device designed to maintain the required pressure difference between the high and low pressure sides while the compressor runs.

Cohesion

The fluid property that refers to the intermolecular attraction by which the separate particles of the same fluid are held together.

Binary Geothermal Plant

A type of geothermal power plant utilized when brine or water extracted from underground contains impurities and passes through a heat exchanger to boil a secondary working fluid.

Pressure-Imposing Element

Any mechanical device or equipment section, such as a compressor, used within a refrigeration system to increase the refrigerant pressure.

Pumpdown Charge

The quantity of refrigerant stored within a designated vessel or component of a refrigeration system for operational, maintenance, or standby purposes.

Zeotropic Blend

A refrigerant mixture consisting of multiple volatile components that changes its volumetric composition and saturation temperature as it boils or condenses at constant pressure.

Companion Valve

A pair of mating stop valves that allow sections of a piping system to be joined before opening or separated after closing.

Once-Through Boiler

A high-pressure, forced-circulation steam generator designed without a conventional steam-separating drum, also referred to as a drumless boiler.

Morse Test

An experimental multi-cylinder engine test performed by cutting out the ignition or fuel supply of each cylinder sequentially to determine indicated power.

Jet Deflector

A mechanical device positioned in an impulse turbine jet to divert water away from the runner buckets to prevent sudden overspeed during load rejection.

Unit Speed

The rotational speed of a hydraulic turbine when operating under an effective head of $1\,\text{m}$.

Enthalpy ($h$)

A thermodynamic property representing the total thermal energy of a fluid, mathematically defined as internal energy plus the product of pressure and volume ($h = u + pV$).

Control Volume

A fixed, designated region in space chosen for thermodynamic analysis across whose boundaries mass and energy may pass.

Stirling Cycle

An ideal thermodynamic cycle composed of two reversible isothermal processes and two reversible constant-volume (isometric) processes.

Compressed Liquid

A liquid whose existing pressure is higher than the saturation pressure corresponding to its temperature, or whose temperature is below saturation temperature.

Critical Point

The state of pressure and temperature at which the boundary between the liquid and vapor phases disappears and both phases become indistinguishable.

Sublimation

The direct phase transformation of a substance from a solid to a vapor without passing through an intermediate liquid state.

Quasi-Static Process

An idealized process in which a thermodynamic system departs from an equilibrium state only infinitesimally at each instant.

Intensive Property

A thermodynamic physical property that is independent of the amount of matter in the system, such as temperature, pressure, and density.

Extensive Property

A thermodynamic property that is directly proportional to and dependent on the total mass of the system, such as total volume and total internal energy.

Seebeck Effect

The phenomenon where an electromotive force (EMF) is induced across two junctions of dissimilar electrical conductors held at different temperatures.

Third Law of Thermodynamics

The principle stating that the total entropy of a pure, perfectly crystalline substance approaches zero as the absolute thermodynamic temperature approaches absolute zero.

Heat Reservoir

A thermodynamic body possessing an infinite thermal heat capacity that can supply or absorb finite amounts of heat without undergoing a change in temperature.

Heat Engine

A thermodynamic system operating in a continuous cycle that exchanges heat and work across its boundaries while remaining completely impervious to mass flow.

Compressibility Factor ($z$)

A dimensionless thermodynamic factor used to quantify deviation from ideal gas behavior, defined as $z = \frac{PV}{RT}$.

Quality ($x$)

The fraction of the total mass of a two-phase liquid-vapor mixture that exists in the saturated vapor state.

Mean Effective Pressure

The hypothetical constant pressure that, if acting on the piston during the power stroke, would produce the same net work as the actual changing pressure cycle.

Triple Point

The specific thermodynamic state of temperature and pressure at which the solid, liquid, and gaseous phases of a substance coexist simultaneously in equilibrium.

Kelvin-Planck Statement

The statement of the second law of thermodynamics establishing that it is impossible to construct a cyclic heat engine that receives heat from a single reservoir and delivers an equivalent amount of work.

Ericsson Cycle

A theoretical thermodynamic power cycle composed of two reversible isothermal processes and two reversible isobaric (constant-pressure) processes.

Bell-Coleman Cycle

A reversed Joule or Brayton thermodynamic cycle commonly implemented using air as the refrigerant.

Stagnation Temperature

The elevated temperature an ideal gas attains when brought to complete rest through an adiabatic deceleration process.

Heat of Vaporization

The quantity of heat energy required to transform a unit mass of saturated liquid into saturated vapor at a specified saturation temperature and pressure.

Dalton's Law

The physical law stating that the total pressure exerted by a mixture of non-reacting gases equals the sum of the partial pressures exerted by each individual gas.

Amagat's Law

The physical law establishing that the total volume of a non-reacting gas mixture equals the sum of the partial volumes of its individual constituents at the same temperature and pressure.

Dew Point Temperature

The temperature to which moist air must be cooled under constant atmospheric pressure in order for moisture to begin condensing out as water.

Compound Pressure Gauge

A pressure instrument designed with internal mechanisms capable of indicating both positive pressures above atmospheric and negative vacuum pressures below atmospheric.

King Valve

The terminology applied to the main liquid shut-off service valve positioned at the outlet line of a refrigeration liquid receiver.

Stefan-Boltzmann Law

The radiation law stating that the total radiant heat flux emitted per unit surface area of a blackbody is directly proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature.

Kirchhoff's Law of Radiation

The principle stating that for bodies in thermal equilibrium with their environment, the ratio of total emissive power to absorptivity is constant for all bodies at a given temperature.