High pressure steam at saturated vapor conditions is to be used to launch a small projectile in a steam catapult. For simplicity assume the catapult consists of the piston-cylinder geometry (with the piston as the projectile) and that it is positioned horizontally. The steam initially occupies a volume of 1 liter at a pressure of 200 kpa. Assuming the process that the steam follows is isentropic and that the final pressure of
the steam is 100 kPa determine:
a. the work done by the steam (neglect the work on the atmosphere) Ans. 0.117 kJ
b. if the mass of the projectile is 0.1 kg, what is the velocity of the projectile at the end of the process (assume the projectile receives no heat transfer)? Ans. 48.4 m/s, note Q = 0.
c. make a qualitative plot of the process of the steam on a T-s diagram