A gas turbine power plant operates on a simple Brayton cycle with a pressure ratio of 10. The inlet temperature is 20°C, and the turbine inlet temperature is 1000°C. Calculate the thermal efficiency of the cycle.

η = 1 - (1/r^(γ-1)) = 1 - (1/8^(1.4-1)) ≈ 56.5%

A spark-ignition engine operates on an ideal Otto cycle with a compression ratio of 8. At the beginning of the compression process, air is at 100 kPa and 17°C. Calculate the thermal efficiency of the cycle.

Keep in mind that these are just sample problems and solutions. For a complete and accurate solution manual, I recommend purchasing the official solution manual or accessing instructor resources.

If you're looking for sample problems and solutions to get an idea of the types of problems covered in Chapter 9, I can provide you with a few examples:

Using the Brayton cycle equations, we can calculate the thermal efficiency:

η = 1 - (1/r^((γ-1)/γ)) = 1 - (1/10^((1.4-1)/1.4)) ≈ 40.1%