ENGINEERING THERMODYNAMICS

8.0 INTRODUCTION TO THE HEAT ENGINE CYCLE

The heat engine cycle consists of a number of processes arranged to convert heat into work
such that the system is returned to its original state at the end of each cycle.

Consider an engine arranged as shown below,

Figure 8.1: Heat Engine

8.1 Efficiency of the Heat Engine (η)

The efficiency of the Heat Engine can be calculated as follows:

(8.1)

(8.2)

(8.3)

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Example 8.1:

An engine receives heat at the rate of 2000 kJ/min and produces 10 kW of the output shaft.
Determine the efficiency of the engine and the heat rejected per minute.

Solution
Data:
- Work output (or performed), W = 10 kW
- Heat absorbed Q1 = (2000/60) kW = 33.333 kW

Calculations

(a) Efficiency

(b) Heat rejected

Q2 = Q1 – W

= 33.33 kW – 10 kW = 23.33 kW = (23.33X60) kJ/min

= 1399.8 kJ/min Ans

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Example 8.2:

A Heat Pump supplies heat energy to a building at the rate of 10,000 kJ/min. The heat energy
extracted from the cold source is 8000 kJ/min. Find the input power to the pump.

Data:
Q1 = 8,000 kJ/min, Q2 = 10,000 kJ/min
W = Q1 – Q2
= 8,000 kJ/min – 10, 000 kJ/min = -2000 kJ/min = -33.33 kW Ans

8.2 Reversibility

If it were possible to reverse the engine cycle hundred percent, so that the path which was
traced can be exactly retraced and the system and its surrounding are restored to the original
state, then the process is said to be reversible - no evidence of such has been recorded due to
the following factors:

1. Friction
2. Heat transfer from higher to lower temperatures
3. Unpredictable expansion from higher to lower temperature
4. Lack of pressure equilibrium in system
5. Paddle work
This phenomenon of lack of reversibility in the engine cycle explains the reason why it is not
possible to achieve remarkably high efficiencies.

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8.3 Concept of the Carnot Cycle

The concept of the Carnot cycle can be illustrated by a simple piston- cylinder mechanism
shown below,

Figure 8.2: The Cylinder - Piston system

8.4 The Carnot limit explained

Any time engineers try to design a new kind of heat - based engine or improve on an existing
design, they bump up against a fundamental efficiency limit: The Carnot Limit.

The Carnot Limit “sets an absolute limit on the efficiency with which heat energy can be
turned into useful work,” says MIT’s Jane and Otto Morningstar Professor of Physics Robert
Jaffe, who co-taught a course on the physics of energy. If engineers are faced with
redesigning an engine that is 35 % efficient, it makes a big difference whether the maximum
possible efficiency of such an engine is 50%, in which case it may not be feasible to try to
push it further 80 percent, in which case there is a significant margin for improvement.
Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot, who was born in France in 1796 and lived for only 36 years,
deduced this limit. His insights into the nature of heat, and the limitations on machines that
use heat, had an impact that lasts to this day. What makes his accomplishments all the more
remarkable is the fact that the nature of heat itself was not understood until long after
Carnot’s death. At the time of his research, scientists still subscribed to the later-discredited
“caloric” theory of heat, which held that an invisible fluid of that name carried heat from one
object to another. Carnot’s 1824 book “Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire” laid out a
set of principles that, in some cases, are still widely used. One of those is the Carnot Limit
(also known as Carnot efficiency), which is given by a simple equation: the difference in

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temperature between the hot working fluid - such as the steam in a power plant - and its
cooled-off temperature as it leaves the engine, divided by the temperature in Kelvin (that is,
degrees above absolute zero) of the hot fluid.

This theoretical efficiency is expressed as a percentage, which can be approached but never
actually reached.

At the time of Carnot’s work, the best steam engines in the world had an overall efficiency of
only about 3 percent. Today, conventional steam engines can reach efficiencies of 25 percent,
and gas-fired turbine steam generators in power plants can reach 40 percent or more -
compared to a Carnot Limit, depending on the exact heat differences in such plants, of about
51 percent. Today’s car engines have efficiencies of 20 percent or less, compared to their
Carnot Limit of 37 percent.

Since the limit on efficiency is based on the temperature difference between the heat source
and whatever is used to cool the system — usually outside air or a supply of water - it is clear
that the hotter the heat source, the higher the possible efficiency. So, for example, Jaffe
explains, “a fourth-generation nuclear reactor that heats steam to 1,200ºC uses a given
amount of energy far more efficiently than a geothermal energy source that employs steam at
120 ºC.”

8.5 The Carnot Cycle for the Piston-Cylinder System

In a cyclic process a system is subjected to a series of sub processes and is finally returned to
the initial state. One of the most important cyclic processes is the four steps cyclic process
called the Carnot cycle, in which the system can be an ideal gas, a liquid or solid. The total
cycle is composed of two Reversible Adiabatic Steps and two Reversible Isothermal Steps.
Hence the name four steps cyclic process. The steps are shown on the P-V Diagram shown
below,

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 Figure 8.3: The Carnot cycle (Two adiabatic and two Isothermal steps)

Consider a single Cylinder- Piston system in which 1kg of gas is subjected to a series of
processes shown on the P-V diagram above.

The objective is to derive the net change in internal energy ∆Enet, net heat transferred into the
system Qnet and net work done by the system ∆Wnet. In order to derive equations for the
energy changes taking place at each step, the following is the way energy changes are
derived:

1. STEP 1-2

Initially the system is in a thermodynamic state defined by the state variables, P1V1T1. The
system is insulated and the gas is compressed adiabatically and reversibly until its
temperature becomes T2. The changes that take place in this step are as follows:

(i) Q12 = O (Adiabatic step)

(ii) ∆E12 = CV(T2 – T1) (for an ideal gas dE12 = CV dt), therefore
(iii) W12 = 0 – ∆E12 (from 1st law of thermodynamics)

W12 = - ∆E12 = -CV (T2 – T1) = CV (T1 – T2)

2. STEP 2-3
The system is initially at T2 and is allowed to expand isothermally and reversibly to T3. Heat
is absorbed by the system during the process and useful work is done on the surrounding.

(i) ∆E23 = O (Isothermal process)

(ii) W23 = RT2ln V3/V2

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 (iii) Q23 = 0 + RT2 ln V3/V2 (from the 1st law)

Q23 = RT2 ln V3/V2

This equation gives the heat absorbed into the process from the surrounding.

3. STEP 3 – 4

The system is taken out of high temperature and insulated and allowed to expand
adiabatically and reversibly until the temperature drops from T3 to T4

(i) Q34 = O (Adiabatic step)

(ii) ∆E34 = CV(T4 – T3) (for an ideal gas dE34 = CV dt), therefore
(iii) W34 = 0 – ∆E34 = – ∆E34 (from 1st law of thermodynamics)

W34 = – ∆E34 = – CV (T4 – T3) = CV (T3 – T4)

4. STEP 4 - 1

The system is initially at T4 and is allowed to expand isothermally and reversibly to T1. Heat
is rejected by the system during this step.

(i) ∆E41 = O (Isothermal process)

(ii) W41 = RT4ln V1/V4
(iii) Q41 = 0 + RT4ln V1/V4 (from the 1st law) (from 1st law of thermodynamics)

Q41 = RT4ln V1/V4

This equation gives the heat rejected from the process to the surrounding.

(A) Net internal energy change, ∆Enet or ∆Ecyclic for the whole cyclic process can be
calculated by summing up all the internal energy changes from all the four steps

∆Ecyclic = ∆E12 + ∆E23 + ∆E 34 + ∆E41

∆Ecyclic = CV (T2 – T1) + 0 + CV(T4 – T3) + 0
∆Ecyclic = CV (T2 – T1) – CV(T3 – T4)

Assumptions:
(i) T2 ≈ T3 (isothermal)
(ii) T4 ≈ T1 (isothermal)

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∆Ecyclic = CV (T2 – T1) – CV (T2 – T2)

(8.4)

(B) Net heat change, Qnet or Qcyclic for the whole cyclic process can be calculated by
summing up all the heat changes from all the four steps

Qcyclic = Q12 + Q23 + Q34 + Q41

= 0 + RT2 ln V3/V2 + 0 + RT4ln V1/V4
= RT2 ln V3/V2 + RT4ln V1/V4
Qcyclic = RT2 ln V3/V2 – RT4ln V4/V1
Assumptions

T4 ≈ T1 (Isothermal)
V’4 ≈ V3 (approximately isovolumetric process)
V1 ≈ V2 (approximately isovolumetric process)
Qcyclic = RT2 ln V3/V2 – RT1ln V3/V2

(8.5)

(C) Net work done, Wnet or Wcyclic for the whole cyclic process can be calculated by
summing up all the Work done in all the four steps
Wcyclic = W12 + Q23 + Q34 + Q41
= 0 + RT2 ln V3/V2 + 0 + RT4ln V1/V4
Wcyclic = RT2 ln V3/V2 + RT4ln V1/V4

Wcyclic = RT2 ln V3/V2 – RT4ln V4/V1

Assumptions:

T4 ≈ T1 (Isothermal)
V4 ≈ V3 (Isovolumetric)
V1 ≈ V2 (Isovolumetric)

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 (8.6)

From equations (8.4), (8.5) and (8.6) it can be concluded that the net internal energy change
in a cyclic process is equal to zero while the net work done by a cyclic process is equal to the
net heat supplied to the cyclic process.

8.6 Efficiency of the Carnot Cycle for the Cylinder-Piston System

The efficiency of the Carnot Cycle can be calculated as follows:

(8.7)

(8.8)

(8.9)
From the Carnot equation (8.9), it can be observed that the efficiency of an engine working
on the Carnot cycle is (a) independent of the quality of the working substance. (b) The
pressure limit of the cycle. (c) It shows that only a fraction of the heat absorbed at high
Temperature is converted to work which is equal to

(8.10)

This fraction becomes smaller as the difference (T2 - T1) becomes smaller. When the
difference (T2 - T1) is equal to 0, no heat is converted to work. On the other hand, complete
conversion of heat into work is possible, at least theoretically, only where T1 is equal to 0 K.