Energy and entropy generation analysis of hydrological cycle in tropical regions

Energy and entropy studies of the processes involved in the hydrologic cycle have been carried out assuming that the cycle mimics the behaviour of an actual Rankine cycle. At a given set of operating conditions, the net work outputs used for atmospheric circulation and the efficiencies are evaluated for both reversible and irreversible cycles. The efficiency shows an inverse relation with the system vapour quality for the irreversible cycle, unlike the reversible one in which it increases up to a certain value and then decreases. The efficiency value is found to vary from 0.028 to 0.068 when the difference in hot and cold temperatures gets varied from 10°C to 40°C. The investigation of the effect of the operating temperatures on the critical vapour quality of the system shows that the critical vapour quality depends almost linearly on the cold operating temperature.