Select 'Rankine cycle' to view a schematic of the cycle, and select 'turbine' to show the inlet and outlet conditions for the turbine and the work generated. The irreversible turbine pathway ( ) is the dashed black line on the diagram the reversible turbine pathway is the orange dashed line. Use a slider to vary the turbine efficiency, which is the ratio of work produced by the turbine to the work produced by a reversible turbine between the same inlet and outlet pressures. Use sliders to select the inlet pressure to the turbine and one of four outlet pressures. Select ' diagram' to see the cycle on a pressure-enthalpy diagram. After the steam is condensed (5), a pump compresses the liquid water to high pressure (1). The steam exits the turbine at a lower pressure and temperature as either superheated steam or steam with a vapor quality (4). The superheated steam is fed to a turbine, where it expands and generates mechanical work. In a Rankine cycle, high-pressure liquid water (1) enters a boiler where it is heated to saturation temperature (2), vaporized, and superheated (3).

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