Compartir
Título
Success versus failure: Efficient heat devices in thermodynamics
Autor(es)
Fecha de publicación
2022-01
Resumen
[EN]Classical equilibrium thermodynamics provides, in a general way, upper Carnot bounds for the performance
of energy converters. Nevertheless, to suggest lower bounds is a much more subtle issue, especially when they
are related to a definition of convenience. Here, this issue is investigated in a unified way for heat engines,
refrigerators, and heat pumps. First, irreversibilities are weighted in the context of heat reservoir stability for
irreversible engines by using the thermodynamic distance between minimum energy and maximum entropy
steady states. Some stability coefficients can be related to a majorization process and the obtention of Pareto
fronts, linking stability and optimization by means of efficiency and entropy due to correlations between system
and reservoirs. Second, these findings are interpreted in a very simple context. A region where the heat device
is efficient is defined in a general scheme and, below this zone, the heat device is inefficient in the sense that
irreversibilities somehow dominate its behavior. These findings allow for a clearer understanding of the role
played by some well-known figures of merit in the scope of finite-time and -size optimization. Comparison with
experimental results is provided.
Descripción
J.G.A. acknowledges financial support from University of
Salamanca, with Contract No. 0218 463AB01, and A.M. and
J.A.W. under Contract No. 18.KB.YF/463A.C.01.
URI
ISSN
2470-0045
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevE.105.014115
Versión del editor
Colecciones
- GIOETFE. Artículos [48]