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The Stirling engine has the highest theoretical efficiency of any thermal engine but it has a low output power to weight ratio, therefore Stirling engines of practical output tend to be large. The size effect of the Stirling engine is due to its reliance on the expansion of a gas with an increase in temperature and practical limits on the ...
For a heat engine, thermal efficiency is the ratio of the net work output to the heat input; in the case of a heat pump, thermal efficiency (known as the coefficient of performance or COP) is the ratio of net heat output (for heating), or the net heat removed (for cooling) to the energy input (external work). The efficiency of a heat engine is ...
The larger the temperature difference between the hot and cold sections of a Stirling engine, the greater the engine's efficiency. The heat sink is typically the environment the engine operates in, at ambient temperature. In the case of medium- to high-power engines, a radiator is required to transfer the heat from the engine to the ambient air ...
A heat engine is a system that converts heat to usable energy, particularly mechanical energy, which can then be used to do mechanical work. [1] [2] While originally conceived in the context of mechanical energy, the concept of the heat engine has been applied to various other kinds of energy, particularly electrical, since at least the late 19th century.
Carnot engine diagram (modern) - where an amount of heat Q H flows from a high temperature T H furnace through the fluid of the "working body" (working substance) and the remaining heat Q C flows into the cold sink T C, thus forcing the working substance to do mechanical work W on the surroundings, via cycles of contractions and expansions.
The higher cost of turbines and the associated gears or generator/motor sets is offset by lower maintenance requirements and the smaller size of a turbine in comparison with a reciprocating engine of equal power, although the fuel costs are higher than those of a diesel engine because steam turbines have lower thermal efficiency. To reduce fuel ...
Ericsson's engine also minimizes mechanical losses: the power necessary for compression does not go through crank-bearing frictional losses, but is applied directly from the expansion force. The piston-type Ericsson engine can potentially be the highest efficiency heat engine arrangement ever constructed.
Since a Carnot heat engine is a reversible heat engine, and all reversible heat engines operate with the same efficiency between the same reservoirs, we have the first part of Carnot's theorem: No irreversible heat engine is more efficient than a Carnot heat engine operating between the same two thermal reservoirs.