Title: Exergy analysis of the pneumatic line throwing system

Authors: Zhiwen Wang; Wei Xiong; Haitao Wang; Zuwen Wang

Addresses: Department of Marine Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China ' Department of Transportation Equipment and Marine Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China ' Department of Transportation Equipment and Marine Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China ' Department of Transportation Equipment and Marine Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China

Abstract: Energy efficiency is an important property in pneumatic systems. There are three approaches for evaluating the efficiency of pneumatic systems. The analysis shows that exergy-related analysis is the most suitable tool. In this study, exergy analysis is performed in a pneumatic line throwing system. The non-flow exergy based on the real gas equation is deduced and divided into the volume component and the non-volume component. The results show that the total exergy efficiency of the system fluctuates slightly between 16.29% and 16.86%. The exergy efficiency of the throttling decompression process decreases from 97.12% to 67.34% as the working pressure decreases. While the exergy efficiency of the pneumatic line-thrower part increases from 17.36% to 24.19% with the decreasing working pressure. Some practical measures are proposed to improve the efficiency of the system. Additionally, future work on this study and outlook for exergy analysis in pneumatic systems are discussed.

Keywords: exergy efficiency; energy efficiency; thermodynamics; exergy analysis; pneumatic line throwing; pneumatic systems; exergy destruction; optimisation; compressed air; real gas; throttling decompression; rope throwing; ropes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2016.075669

International Journal of Exergy, 2016 Vol.19 No.3, pp.364 - 379

Received: 27 Aug 2014
Accepted: 09 Mar 2015
Published online: 31 Mar 2016 *

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