 Irreversible process –processes that proceed

spontaneously in one direction but not the other.

 Thermodynamic processes that occur in nature are all irreversible
processes. (ex. flow of heat from hot body to a cooler body, free
expansion of gas).
 Non-equilibrium process
 Reversible process – one whose direction can be reversed
by an infinitesimal change in the conditions of the process,
and in which the system is always in or very close to
thermal equilibrium.
 Equilibrium process
 By making the temperature gradient and the pressure differences
in the substance very small, the system can be kept very close to
equilibrium states and make the process nearly reversible.
 any device that transforms heat partly into work or
mechanical energy

 Working substance – the matter inside the engine which

undergoes inflow and outflow of heat, expansion and
compression, and sometimes change of phase.
 Cyclic process – a sequence of processes that eventually
leaves the substance in the same state in which it started.
 Hot reservoir – heat source
 Cold reservoir – absorbs the
discarded heat from the engine.

 When a system is carried through

a cyclic process, it’s initial and
final internal energies are equal:

 The net heat Q absorbed per

cycle is

(1)
Thermal efficiency
 represents the fraction of QH that is converted to work.

(2)
 A gasoline truck engine takes in 10,000 J of heat and
delivers 2000 J of mechanical work per cycle. The heat is
obtained by burning gasoline with heat of combustion
Lc = 5.0 x 104 J/g.
(a) What is the thermal efficiency of this engine?
(b) How much heat is discarded in each cycle?
(c) If the engine goes through 25 cycles per second, what is
its power output in watts? In horsepower?
(d) How much gasoline is burned in each cycle?
(e) How much gasoline is burned per second? Per hour?
 V – minimum volume
rV – maximum volume
 Gasoline engine (r = 8 to 10)
r – compression ratio
 A gasoline engine that has a
theoretical maximum thermal
efficiency e that depends on the
compression ratio r and the ratio
of heat capacities γ of the working
substance.

(3)

 For r = 8, and γ=1.4, e = 56%

 For real gasoline engines, e ≈ 35%
 Similar to gasoline engine
 r = 15 to 20
 e = 65% to 70%
 A heat engine operating in
reverse
 QC is positive
 QH and W are negative
 Coefficient of performance, K

(4)
 Works on the same principle
as a refrigerator
 Coefficient of performance, K

where
 The “engine” statement

 The “refrigerator” statement

A refrigerator has a coefficient of performance of
2.10. In each cycle it absorbs 3.40 x 104 J of heat
from the cold reservoir.
(a) How much mechanical energy is required each
cycle to operate the refrigerator?
(b) During each cycle, how much heat is discarded
to the high-temperature reservoir?
A refrigerator has a coefficient of
performance of 2.25, runs on an input of 95 W
of electrical power, and keeps its inside
compartment at 5°C. If you put a dozen 1.0-L
plastic bottles of water at 31°C into this
refrigerator, how long will it take for them to
be cooled down to 5°C? (Ignore any heat that
leaves the plastic) cwater = 4190 J/Kg-K.
A gasoline engine has a power output of 180
kW (about 241 hp). Its thermal efficiency is
28.0%.
(a) How much heat must be supplied to the
engine per second?
(b) How much heat is discarded by the engine
per second?
 The Otto-cycle engine in a Mercedes-Benz SLK230
has a compression ratio of 8.8.
(a) What is the ideal efficiency of the engine?
Use γ = 1.40
(b) The engine in a Dodge Viper GT2 has a
slightly higher compression ratio of 9.6. How much
increase in the ideal efficiency results from this
increase in the compression ratio?