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An engine changes heat into work. In the engine of a car the heat is generated by
the combustion of an air-gas mixture. The heat is used to expand the gas, and lift the
piston. Although work can be completely changed into heat, the reverse is not true
(second law of thermodynamics). The first form of the second law is:
" It is not possible to completely change heat into work with no other change
taking place "
Let us look at an ideal gas confined by a piston in a volume V i. The gas is in contact with
a heat reservoir with temperature T. The gas is permitted to expand by removing some
weight of the piston. Its volume will increase while its temperature remains constant.
Since the internal energy of the gas only depends on its temperature, the internal energy
of the gas will not change. From the first law of thermodynamics we conclude that
This shows that we have converted all extracted heat into work. However, in the process
we have also changed the state of the gas. Its volume and pressure have changed. In
order to return the gas to its internal state we need to do work and extract heat from the
system. In that case, the net work and heat will be zero.
A 100% efficiency will be obtained if and only if Q C = 0. However, the second law of
thermodynamics clearly states that it is impossible to change heat completely into work.
Thus, there are no perfect engines.
Step 2: the cylinder is removed from the high temperature reservoir and put into
an insulating stand. Some more weight is removed from the piston. As a consequence,
the gas will further expand, and since there is no heat transfer during the expansion this is
adiabatic expansion. During the expansion the temperature drops to TC and the volume
of the gas increases from Vb to Vc. In chapter 21 we derived the following relation
between temperature and volume for adiabatic processes
Thus gives the following relation between the initial and final temperature and volume
Step 3: The cylinder is put in contact with a colder heat reservoir and weight is
added to the piston. As a result, the gas is slowly compressed (and the volume is
decreased from Vc to Vd). During this compression, heat is transferred from the gas to
the colder reservoir. Since there is no change in the temperature of the gas, its internal
energy will not change. Therefore, during the isothermal compression the heat
transferred to the colder heat reservoir is equal to the work done on the gas
Step 4: the cylinder is put in an insulating stand and more weight is added to the
piston. The gas is compressed and its volume is decreased from V d to Va. The
temperature of the gas increases from TC to TH. Since there is no transfer of heat during
the compression, the process is adiabatic. This means that
Thus gives the following relation between the initial and final temperature and volume
A similar relation can be obtained for the parameters involved in the adiabatic expansion
of the gas
or
Thus,
No real engine operating between two specified temperatures can have a greater
efficiency than that of a carnot engine operating between the same two temperatures.