A vapour-power cycle using a liquid pump, high-pressure heat addition, turbine expansion and low-pressure condensation. Ideal components are reversible apart from heat transfer through finite temperature differences. With states numbered pump inlet, pump outlet, turbine inlet and turbine outlet, the net thermal efficiency is . Liquid pumping avoids the impractical compression of a wet two-phase mixture in a steam realization of the Carnot cycle. Named after William John Macquorn Rankine.
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