1. Steam engine cycles

1.1 Basic diagram of a steam power plant

Steam-driven power plants (SMP) are externally supplied heat engines that operate cyclically, with the fluid exchanging heat with a cold source, usually the surrounding environment (air or water), and a hot source consisting of combustion fumes or a fluid heated by a nuclear reaction. These are continuous-flow machines in which the fluid - very generally water, an ideal fluid because it is thermodynamically well-adapted and economically attractive - undergoes a cyclic thermodynamic evolution, passing through a minimum of four components (figure 1 ):

• a steam generator (GV) in which the...