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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 heat source may be provided by the combustion of a fuel and, since the combustion products do not mix with the working fluid and hence do not come into contact with the internal parts of the engine, a Stirling engine can run on fuels that would damage other engine types' internals, such as landfill gas, which may contain siloxane that could ...
A reversible heat engine with a low efficiency delivers more heat (energy) to the hot reservoir for a given amount of work (energy) to this engine when it is being driven as a heat pump. All these mean that heat can transfer from cold to hot places without external work, and such a heat transfer is impossible by the second law of thermodynamics .
This also categorizes the engine device as an external heat engine. "Regenerative" refers to the use of an internal heat exchanger called a regenerator which increases the device's thermal efficiency. The cycle is the same as most other heat cycles in that there are four main processes: compression, heat addition, expansion, and heat removal.
An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit.
A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884.
A hot air engine [1] (historically called an air engine or caloric engine [2]) is any heat engine that uses the expansion and contraction of air under the influence of a temperature change to convert thermal energy into mechanical work. These engines may be based on a number of thermodynamic cycles encompassing both open cycle devices such as ...