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Carnot Cycle

The Carnot cycle consists of four reversible processes between a high temperature reservoir (TH) and low temperature reservoir (TL) involving: 1) Isothermal expansion where heat (QH) is absorbed from TH and work (W) is done 2) Adiabatic expansion where no heat is exchanged 3) Isothermal compression where heat (QL) is rejected to TL and work (W) is done 4) Adiabatic compression where no heat is exchanged The efficiency of the Carnot cycle is the maximum possible and is equal to 1 - (TL/TH), which is independent of the working substance.

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228 views6 pages

Carnot Cycle

The Carnot cycle consists of four reversible processes between a high temperature reservoir (TH) and low temperature reservoir (TL) involving: 1) Isothermal expansion where heat (QH) is absorbed from TH and work (W) is done 2) Adiabatic expansion where no heat is exchanged 3) Isothermal compression where heat (QL) is rejected to TL and work (W) is done 4) Adiabatic compression where no heat is exchanged The efficiency of the Carnot cycle is the maximum possible and is equal to 1 - (TL/TH), which is independent of the working substance.

Uploaded by

glorfrank
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Carnot Cycle

Idealized thermodynamic cycle consisting of four reversible processes (any


substance): Reversible isothermal expansion (1-2, TH=constant) Reversible adiabatic expansion (2-3, Q=0, THTL) Reversible isothermal compression (3-4, TL=constant) Reversible adiabatic compression (4-1, Q=0, TLTH)

1-2

2-3

3-4

4-1

The Carnot Cycle-2


Work done by gas = PdV, area under the process curve 1-2-3. dV>0 from 1-2-3 1 PdV>0 2
3

Work done on gas = PdV, area under the process curve 3-4-1 subtract 1 Net work 2 4 3 1 Since dV<0 PdV<0 2 3

The Carnot Principles


The efficiency of an irreversible heat engine is always less than the efficiency of
a reversible one operating between the same two reservoirs. hth, irrev < hth, rev The efficiencies of all reversible heat engines operating between the same two reservoirs are the same. (hth, rev)A= (hth, rev)B Both Can be demonstrated using the second law (K-P statement and Cstatement). Therefore, the Carnot heat engine defines the maximum efficiency any practical heat engine can reach up to. Thermal efficiency hth=Wnet/QH=1-(QL/QH)=f(TL,TH) and it can be shown that hth=1-(QL/QH)=1-(TL/TH). This is called the Carnot efficiency. For a typical steam power plant operating between TH=800 K (boiler) and TL=300 K(cooling tower), the maximum achievable efficiency is 62.5%.

Example
Let us analyze an ideal gas undergoing a Carnot cycle between two temperatures TH and TL. 1 to 2, isothermal expansion, DU12 = 0 QH = Q12 = W12 = PdV = mRTHln(V2/V1)

2 to 3, adiabatic expansion, Q23 = 0 (TL/TH) = (V2/V3)k-1 (1)


3 to 4, isothermal compression, DU34 = 0 QL = Q34 = W34 = - mRTLln(V4/V3) 4 to 1, adiabatic compression, Q41 = 0 (TL/TH) = (V1/V4)k-1 (2) From (1) & (2), (V2/V3) = (V1/V4) and (V2/V1) = (V3/V4) hth = 1-(QL/QH )= 1-(TL/TH) since ln(V2/V1) = ln(V4/V3) It has been proven that hth = 1-(QL/QH )= 1-(TL/TH) for all Carnot engines since the Carnot efficiency is independent of the working substance.

Carnot Efficiency
A Carnot heat engine operating between a high-temperature source at 900 K and reject heat to a low-temperature reservoir at 300 K. (a) Determine the thermal efficiency of the engine. (b) If the temperature of the hightemperature source is decreased incrementally, how is the thermal efficiency 1 changes with the temperature. 0.8 Lower TH TL 300 0.6 h th 1 1 0.667 66.7% Th( T ) TH 900 0.4

Fixed T 300( K ) and lowering T


L

Efficiency

0.2 0 200 400 600 800 1000

300 h (T ) 1 T
th H H

T Temperature (TH)

The higher the temperature, the higher the "quality"


Efficiency

1 0.8 0.6

of the energy: More work can be done Fixed T 900( K ) and increasing T
H

Increase TL

TH( TL ) 0.4 0.2 0 200 400 600 800 1000

h (T ) 1
th H

T 900
L

TL Temperature (TL)

Carnot Efficiency
Similarly, the higher the temperature of the low-temperature sink, the more difficult for a heat engine to transfer heat into it, thus, lower thermal efficiency also. That is why low-temperature reservoirs such as rivers and lakes are popular for this reason. To increase the thermal efficiency of a gas power turbine, one would like to increase the temperature of the combustion chamber. However, that sometimes conflict with other design requirements. Example: turbine blades can not withstand the high temperature gas, thus leads to early fatigue. Solutions: better material research and/or innovative cooling design. Work is in general more valuable compared to heat since the work can convert to heat almost 100% but not the other way around. Heat becomes useless when it is transferred to a low-temperature source because the thermal efficiency will be very low according to hth=1-(TL/TH). This is why there is little incentive to extract the massive thermal energy stored in the oceans and lakes.

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