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The most efficient heat engine cycle is the Carnot cycle, consisting of two isothermal processes and two adiabatic processes (see Figure 08). The Carnot cycle can be thought of as the most efficient heat engine cycle allowed by physical laws. When the second law of thermo-dynamics states that not all the supplied heat in a heat engine can be used to do work, the Carnot efficiency sets the limiting value on the fraction of the heat which can be so used. In order to approach the Carnot efficiency, the processes involved in the heat engine cycle must be reversible and involve no change in entropy. This means that the Carnot cycle is an idealization, since no real engine processes are reversible and all real physical processes involve some increase in entropy. | ||
Figure 07 Heat Engine |
Figure 08 Carnot Engine Cycle |
The p-V diagrams for the more realistic cases are shown in Figure 09, 10, and 11 for the gasoline, diesel, and steam engines respectively. While the gasoline and diesel engines operate at about 50% efficiency, the steam engine runs at only about 30%. A brief description of the processes can be found in each of the diagram. | |||
Figure 09 Gasoline Engine |
Figure 10 Diesel Engine |
Figure 11 Steam Engine [view large image] |