5-126

5-152 An air compressor consumes 4.5 kW of power to compress a specified rate of air. The flow work
required by the compressor is to be compared to the power used to increase the pressure of the air.
Assumptions 1 Flow through the compressor is steady. 2 Air is an ideal gas.
Properties The gas constant of air is 0.287 kPa·m3/kg·K (Table A-1).
1 MPa
Analysis The specific volume of the air at the inlet is 300°C
RT1 (0.287 kPa ⋅ m 3 /kg ⋅ K )(20 + 273 K )
v1 = = = 0.7008 m 3 /kg Compressor
P1 120 kPa

The mass flow rate of the air is

120 kPa
V 0.010 m 3 /s 20°C
m& = 1 = = 0.01427 kg/s
v 1 0.7008 m 3 /kg

Combining the flow work expression with the ideal gas equation of state gives the flow work as
wflow = P2v 2 − P1v 1 = R(T2 − T1 ) = (0.287 kJ/kg ⋅ K)(300 − 20)K = 80.36 kJ/kg

The flow power is

W& flow = m& wflow = (0.01427 kg/s)(80.36 kJ/kg) = 1.147 kW

The remainder of compressor power input is used to increase the pressure of the air:

W& = W& total,in − W& flow = 4.5 − 1.147 = 3.353 kW

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