Endoreversible Otto engines at maximal power
Date
2020-03-24Type of Work
6 pagesText
journal articles preprints
Citation of Original Publication
Smith, Zackary; Pal, P. S.; Deffner, Sebastian; Endoreversible Otto engines at maximal power; Journal of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics | Volume 45: Issue 3 (2020); DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jnet-2020-0039Rights
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Abstract
Despite its idealizations, thermodynamics has proven its power as a predictive theory for practical applications. In particular, the Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency provides a benchmark for any real engine operating at maximal power. Here we further develop the analysis of endoreversible Otto engines. For a generic class of working mediums, whose internal energy is proportional to some power of the temperature, we find that no engine can achieve the Carnot efficiency at finite power. However, we also find that for the specific example of photonic engines the efficiency at maximal power is larger than the Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency.