Case Scenario:
A wet steam at 20bar with a quality of 0.97 leaks through a defective steam trap and expands to a pressure of 1 atm. The process can be considered to take place in two stages: a rapid adiabatic expansion to 1 atm accompanied by complete evaporation of the liquid droplets in the wet steam, followed by cooling at 1 atm to ambient temperature. Ek may be neglected in both stages.
(a) Estimate the temperature of the superheated steam immediately following the rapid adiabatic expansion.
(b) Someone looking at the steam trap would see a clear space just outside the leak and a white plume forming a short distance away. (The same phenomenon can be observed outside the spout of a kettle in which water is boiling.) Explain this observation. What would the temperature be at the point where the plume begins?