Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Heat engine

In thermodynamics, heat engine refers to a system capable of converting the heat input to the system into mechanical work.
eg.: Steam engine.
In thermodynamic analysis, while solving problems a typical heat engine is represented as follow.

Representation of heat engine.
Here the heat engine acts between source and sink.Source will be at high temperature
compare to sink hence flow of heat takes place from source to sink with engine acting in between.
Here QS refers to heat supplied
         QR refers to heat rejected with respect to heat engine.
The most important parameter of heat engines is their efficiency.Efficiency of an heat engine is given by
the ratio of output to input.Here output is W and input is QS.
Efficiency of an heat engine.

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