TOPIC 4

Second Law of Thermodynamics

Second law of thermodynamics Heat engine Reversed heat engine (Heat pump) Reversible process Irreversible process Carnot cycle Carnot heat engine (slide 1, slide 2) Carnot heat pump / Carnot refrigerator
(slide 1, slide 2)

Second Law of Thermodynamics

Second Law is about entropy
Although the net heat supplied in a cycle is equal to the net work done, the gross heat supplied must be greater than the work done; some heat must always be rejected by the system

In an isolated system, the entropy never decreases. Another

Heat Engine Heat engine are special devices used to convert heat into work A heat engine is a system operating in a complete cycle and developing net work from a supply of heat. The second law implies that a source of heat supply (or hot reservoir) and a sink (or cold reservoir) for the rejection of heat are both necessary, since some heat must always be rejected by the system.

Reversed Heat Engine (Heat Pump) In general, heat only flows from a high-temperature source to a lowtemperature sink. However, a reversed heat engine can be utilized to pump the heat from a lowtemperature region to a hightemperature region. The reversed heat engine is called heat pump. In the case of a reversed cycle, the net work done on the system is equal to the net heat rejected by the system. Such cycles occur in heat pumps and refrigerators.

Reversible Process A reversible process is the process in which the system and surroundings can be restored to the initial state from the final state without producing any changes in the thermodynamics properties of the universe.

In the figure, the system has undergone a change from state A to state B. If the system can be restored from state B to state A, without any changes, then the process is said to be a reversible process. In actual practice the reversible

Irreversible Process The irreversible process is also called the natural process because all the processes occurring in nature are irreversible processes. The natural process occurs due to the finite gradient between the two states of the system Some important points about the irreversible process: 1) In the irreversible process the initial state of the system and surroundings cannot be restored from the final state.

Carnot Cycle

The Carnot's cycle is used to describe theoretical limits of the transformation of heat into physical work. One of the consequences of the second law of thermodynamics is that heat cannot be transformed completely in work. Heat is a type of energy that has high entropy. Carnot's cycle is a physical expression of the consequence of the 2nd law of thermodynamic for engines and other related

Carnot Heat Engine

The Carnot heat engine is a theoretical device that produces mechanical work by pumping heat from a hot reservoir to a cold reservoir. In a Carnot heat engine, a gas in a closed container with a movable piston goes through a cycle of expansion and compression known as the Carnot cycle. The stages of the Carnot cycle are: isothermal expansion, adiabatic expansion, isothermal compression, and adiabatic compression. However, no real-world engine could fully satisfy all these properties, so the

Carnot Heat Engine (cont.)

A heat engine operating in a completely reversible manner is called a Carnot engine (N.L.S. Carnot, 1824): Step 1: A system at the temperature of a cold reservoir, TC undergoes a reversible adiabatic process that causes its temperature to rise to that of a hot reservoir at TH. Step 2: The system maintains contact with the hot and undergoes a reversible isothermal process during which heat |QH| is absorbed from the heat reservoir. Step 3: The system undergoes a reversible adiabatic process in the opposite direction of step1 that brings its

Carnot Heat Pump / Carnot Refrigerator A heat pump is a device which applies external work to extract an amount of heat QL from a cold reservoir and delivers heat QH to a hot reservoir. A heat pump is subject to the same limitations from the second law of thermodynamics as any other heat engine and therefore a maximum efficiency can be calculated from the Carnot cycle. Heat Pumps are usually characterized by a coefficient of performance which is the number of

Carnot Heat Pump / Carnot Refrigerator (cont.)

The reversed Carnot cycle is the most efficient refrigeration cycle operating between TL and TH. However, it is not a suitable model for refrigeration cycles since step 2 and step 4 are not practical because step 2 involves the compression of a liquidvapor mixture, which requires a compressor that will handle two phases, and step 4 involves the expansion of highmoisture-content refrigerant in a turbine.