Specific Features of Combined Cycles of Single-Loop Thermal Power Plants.

Combination of the direct and reverse thermodynamic cycles in two-stream diagrams of thermal power plants is usually implemented according to one of the processes - heat removal or compression. It is proposed to implement cycle combination according to two general (single) processes - heat removal and compression (or expansion). This permits transition to a single-loop diagram of a thermal power plant. Specific features of such cycles based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics are analyzed. As a result of optimization of the Carnot cycle according to the criterion of the specific area of radiators, it is shown that, in case of heat removal by radiation, an optimal thermal power plant realizing the combined cycle in a single-loop diagram is equivalent to an optimal set of a power plant and a refrigerating machine realizing separate direct and reverse Carnot cycles.