Carnot heat engine

which the concept of entropy emerged.

Every thermodynamic system exists in a particular state.
A thermodynamic cycle occurs when a system is taken
through a series of dierent states, and nally returned
to its initial state. In the process of going through this
cycle, the system may perform work on its surroundings,
thereby acting as a heat engine.
A heat engine acts by transferring energy from a warm region to a cool region of space and, in the process, converting some of that energy to mechanical work. The cycle
may also be reversed. The system may be worked upon
by an external force, and in the process, it can transfer
thermal energy from a cooler system to a warmer one,
thereby acting as a refrigerator or heat pump rather than
a heat engine.

1 Carnots diagram
In the adjacent diagram, from Carnots 1824 work,
Reections on the Motive Power of Fire,[3] there are two
bodies A and B, kept each at a constant temperature, that
of A being higher than that of B. These two bodies to
which we can give, or from which we can remove the
heat without causing their temperatures to vary, exercise the functions of two unlimited reservoirs of caloric.
We will call the rst the furnace and the second the
refrigerator.[4] Carnot then explains how we can obtain
motive power, i.e., work, by carrying a certain quantity
of heat from body A to body B.

2 Modern diagram
The previous image shows the original piston-andcylinder diagram used by Carnot in discussing his ideal
engines. The gure at right shows a block diagram of a
generic heat engine, such as the Carnot engine. In the diagram, the working body (system), a term introduced by
Clausius in 1850, can be any uid or vapor body through
which heat Q can be introduced or transmitted to produce
work. Carnot had postulated that the uid body could be
any substance capable of expansion, such as vapor of water, vapor of alcohol, vapor of mercury, a permanent gas,
or air, etc. Although, in these early years, engines came
in a number of congurations, typically QH was supplied
by a boiler, wherein water was boiled over a furnace; QC
was typically supplied by a stream of cold owing water

Axial cross section of Carnots heat engine. In this diagram, abcd

is a cylindrical vessel, cd is a movable piston, and A and B are
constanttemperature bodies. The vessel may be placed in contact with either body or removed from both (as it is here).[1]

A Carnot heat engine[2] is an engine that operates on the

reversible Carnot cycle. The basic model for this engine
was developed by Nicolas Lonard Sadi Carnot in 1824.
The Carnot engine model was graphically expanded upon
by Benot Paul mile Clapeyron in 1834 and mathematically elaborated upon by Rudolf Clausius in 1857 from
1

4 CARNOTS THEOREM
temperature reservoir. (This is the same amount of
entropy absorbed in step 1.)
4. Isentropic compression of the gas (isentropic
work input). (4 to 1 on Figure 1, D to A on Figure
2) Once again the piston and cylinder are assumed
to be thermally insulated.

Carnot engine diagram (modern) - where an amount of heat QH

ows from a high temperature TH furnace through the uid of
the working body (working substance) and the remaining heat
QC ows into the cold sink TC, thus forcing the working substance to do mechanical work W on the surroundings, via cycles
of contractions and expansions.

During this step, the surroundings do work on the gas,

increasing its internal energy and compressing it, causing
the temperature to rise to TH. The entropy remains unchanged. At this point the gas is in the same state as at
the start of step 1.

4 Carnots theorem

in the form of a condenser located on a separate part of

the engine. The output work W here is the movement of
Main article: Carnots theorem (thermodynamics)
the piston as it is used to turn a crank-arm, which was
Carnots theorem is a formal statement of this fact: No
then typically used to turn a pulley so to lift water out of
ooded salt mines. Carnot dened work as weight lifted
through a height.
T
T
Liquid

Vapour

Liquid & Vapour

TH

The Carnot engine

TC
S

Main article: Carnot Cycle

The Carnot cycle when acting as a heat engine consists
of the following steps:
1. Reversible isothermal expansion of the gas at the
hot temperature, TH (isothermal heat addition or absorption). During this step (1 to 2 on
Figure 1, A to B in Figure 2) the gas is allowed to
expand and it does work on the surroundings. The
temperature of the gas does not change during the
process, and thus the expansion is isothermic. The
gas expansion is propelled by absorption of heat energy Q1 and of entropy SH = QH /TH from the
high temperature reservoir.

real ideal engines (left) compared to the Carnot cycle (right). The
entropy of a real material changes with temperature. This change
is indicated by the curve on a T-S diagram. For this gure, the
curve indicates a vapor-liquid equilibrium (See Rankine cycle).
Irreversible systems and losses of heat (for example, due to friction) prevent the ideal from taking place at every step.

engine operating between two heat reservoirs can be more

ecient than a Carnot engine operating between the same
reservoirs.
This maximum eciency I is dened to be:

I =

W
TC
=1
QH
TH

(1)

2. Isentropic (reversible adiabatic) expansion of where

the gas (isentropic work output). For this step (2
to 3 on Figure 1, B to C in Figure 2) the piston and
W is the work done by the system (energy excylinder are assumed to be thermally insulated, thus
iting the system as work),
they neither gain nor lose heat. The gas continues to
QH is the heat put into the system (heat energy
expand, doing work on the surroundings, and losing
entering the system),
an equivalent amount of internal energy. The gas expansion causes it to cool to the cold temperature,
TC is the absolute temperature of the cold
TC. The entropy remains unchanged.
reservoir, and
TH is the absolute temperature of the hot reser3. Reversible isothermal compression of the gas at
voir.
the cold temperature, TC. (isothermal heat rejection) (3 to 4 on Figure 1, C to D on Figure 2)
Now the surroundings do work on the gas, caus- A corollary to Carnots theorem states that: All reversible
ing an amount of heat energy Q2 and of entropy engines operating between the same heat reservoirs are
SC = QC /TC to ow out of the gas to the low equally ecient.

3
It is easily shown that the eciency is maximum when
the entire cyclic process is a Reversible process. This
means the total entropy of the total system consisting of
the three parts: i)entropy of the hot furnace, ii)entropy of
the working uid of the Heat engine, and iii)entropy of
the cold sink, remains constant when the working uid
completes one cycle and returns to its original state. (In
the general case, the total entropy of this combined system would increase in a general irreversible process).
Since the working uid comes back to the same state
after one cycle, and entropy of the system is a state function; the change in entropy of the working uid system
is 0. Thus, it implies that the total entropy change of the
furnace and sink is zero, for the process to be reversible
and the eciency of the engine to be maximum. This
derivation is carried out in the next section.

QH
=
TH

dQH
SH
TH

(4)

Similarly, at the time of heat transfer from the uid to

the cold reservoir we would have, for the magnitude of
total entropy change SC of the uid in the process of
expelling heat:

SC =
Qout

dQC

dQC
QC
=
TC
TC

(5)

Where, during this process of transfer of heat to the cold

reservoir, the temperature of the uid T is always slightly
greater than TC .

The Coecient of Performance (COP) of the heat engine We have only considered the magnitude of the entropy
change here. Since the total change of entropy of the uid
is the reciprocal of its eciency.
system for the cyclic process is 0, we must have

Eciency of real heat engines

SH = SC

(6)

For a real heat engine, the total thermodynamic process is

The previous three equations combine to give:
generally irreversible. The working uid is brought back
to its initial state after one cycle, and thus the change of
entropy of the uid system is 0, but the sum of the entropy Q
QH
C

(7)
changes in the hot and cold reservoir in this one cyclical
TC
TH
process is greater than 0.
The internal energy of the uid is also a state variable, so Equations (2) and (7) combine to give
its total change in one cycle, is 0. So the total work done
by the system W , is equal to the heat put into the system
QH minus the heat taken out QC .

W = QH QC

Hence,

During heat transfer from the hot reservoir at TH to the

uid, the uid would have a slightly lower temperature
than TH , and the process for the uid may not necessarily
remain isothermal. Let SH be the total entropy change
of the uid in the process of intake of heat.

SH =
Qin

dQH
T

(8)

(2)

For real engines, sections 1 and 3 of the Carnot Cycle; in

which heat is absorbed by the working uid from the
hot reservoir, and released by it to the cold reservoir, respectively; no longer remain ideally reversible, and there
is a temperature dierential between the temperature of
the reservoir and the temperature of the uid while heat
exchange takes place.

W
TC
(1
)
QH
TH

(3)

(9)

where = QWH is the eciency of the real engine, and I

is the eciency of the Carnot Engine working between
the same two reservoirs at the temperatures TH and TC
. For the Carnot engine, the entire process is 'reversible',
and Equation (7) is an equality.
Hence, the eciency of the real engine is always less than
the ideal Carnot Engine.
Equation (7) signies that the total entropy of the total
system(the two reservoirs + uid) increases for the real
engine, because the entropy gain of the cold reservoir as
QC ows into it at the xed temperature TC , is greater
than the entropy loss of the hot reservoir as QH leaves it
at its xed temperature TH . The inequality in Equation
(7) is essentially the statement of the Clausius theorem.

where the temperature of the uid T is always slightly According to the second theorem, The eciency of the
lesser than TH , in this process.
Carnot engine is independent of the nature of the working
So, we would get
substance.