CARNOT ENGINE

2ND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS

2nd LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS

 There are 2 equivalent statements of the 2nd law of thermodynamics

 Kelvin plank statement: It is impossible to convert ‘all’ the heat extracted
from a hot body into work.
 In a heat engine, the working substance take heat from a hot body(source),
converts a part of it into work, and gives the rest to a cold body(sink). No engine
has ever been designed which may convert ‘all’ the heat taken from the source
into work, without giving any heat to the sink. This means for obtaining
continuous work, a skin is necessary. In other words, all heat taken from a body
cannot be converted into work, some heat must be given to a colder body.
 Clausius statement: It is impossible to transfer heat from a cold body to a hot
body without expenditure of work by an external energy source.
 In a refrigerator(heat engine running backwards), a working substance(a gas)
takes in heat from a cold body(inner space of refrigerator), has a net amount of
work done on it by an external agent(electric supply), and gives out a larger
amount of heat to a hot body(external atmosphere). It thus transfers heat from a
cold body to a hot body with the aid of external supply. No refrigerator has ever
been designed which may transfer heat from a cold body to a hot body without
using external source.
 The 2nd law of thermodynamics cannot be proven directly. The main evidence for
its truth is that no machine has ever been designed which would contradict to this
law. Further, the deductions made from this law are found to agree with partial
facts.
 Equivalence of the 2 statements: We can show that the above 2 statements of the
2nd law are equivalent:
 Let us suppose that there is a refrigerator R which transfers an amount of heat Q 2
from a cold body to a hot body without having any supply of external energy. It is
a violation of Clausius statement. Now suppose and engine E working between
the same hot and cold bodies takes in heat Q1 from the hot body, converts a part
W(=Q1-Q2) into work, and gives up the remaining heat Q2 to the cold body. The
engine E alone does not violate the law. But if the refrigerator R and the engine E
are combined together, they form a device that taken in heat (Q 1-Q2) from the hot
body and convert all into work without giving up any amount to the cold body.
This is a violation of plank statement.
CONVERSION OF HEAT INTO WORK
HEAT ENGINE AND ITS EFFICIENCY
 Heat engine: Any ‘cyclic’ device by which heat is converted into mechanical
work is called a heat engine.
 There are 3 main parts in and engine:
 1.A hot body called source
2.A working substance
3.A cold body called sink
 The working substance takes in heat from the source, converts a part of It into
useful work, and gives out the rest to the sink.
 This series of processes is called a ‘cycle’ since the working substance returns to
its original state.
 Work done= Q1 – Q2
 Efficiency: The efficiency η, of an engine is defined as the ratio of net work done by the
engine during 1 cycle to the heat taken in from the source in 1 cycle. Thus,

 This expression is independent of the nature of the working substance.

 Since Q2<Q1, the value of is less than1. Further the efficiency of the heat engine will be
unity(100%) when Q2= 0(no heat given to sink). This is however not possible in practice.
This means that the engine cannot convert all the heat taken in from the source into work.
 Efficiency of steam engines is only 10-17%, that of petrol engine is 30-40% and that of diesel
engines is 50-60%.
CARNOT’S IDEAL HEAT ENGINE
(Reversible engine)
 Reversible Engine: In an engine the working substance goes through a cycle of
processes. It takes in heat from the source, converts a part of it into work and
gives out the rest to a cold body, returning to its initial state. During this cycle, the
conditions of the hot and cold bodies and of surroundings change. If this cycle can
be traversed in the reverse order such that all the parts of the engine completely
recover their original conditions and no changes are left in the surroundings, the
cycle is a ‘reversible cycle’, and the engine is a ‘reversible engine’.
 CARNOT’S HEAT ENGINE
 Carnot’s heat engine: Carnot developed a plan of an
idealized heat engine, free from all imperfectness of an
actual engine.

► The carnot engine consists of four components:

► 1.A cylinder with perfectly insulation walls but a
perfectly conducting base, and closed with tightly fitting
frictionless piston. A fixed mass of gas is filled and some
weights are placed on top of the piston.
► 2.A source of infinitely large heat capacity at a constant
temp of T1.
► 3.A sink with infinitely large heat capacity at a constant
temp T2.
► 4.A perfectly insulating stand.
PROCESSES OF CARNOT’S ENGINE
 1.The cylinder is placed on the source and the weights on the piston are
removed in infinitely small steps. The working substance thus expands
infinitely slowly, doing work in raising the piston. During this process,
the substance takes in heat from the source by conduction through the
base. Thus, the expansion of the substance is isothermal. It is continued
until the state represented by the point B is reached. The curve AB
represents the isothermal expansion of the substance at the constant
temp T1.
 2.The cylinder is removed from the source and placed on the heat
insulating stand. The weights are further removed from the piston so
that the substance is further expanded. This expansion is adiabatic
because now no heat can leave or enter the substance through
(insulating)cylinder. The substance does work in raising the piston and
its temp falls. The expansion is continued until the temp falls to T 2. The
adiabatic expansion represented by the curve BC.
 3.The cylinder is now removed from the stand and placed on the sink. Weights are now placed
on the piston in infinitely small steps. The substance is thus compressed isothermally until the
state represented by the point D is reached. The curve CD represents the isothermal
compression at the constant temp T2. During this process, work is done on the substance by the
;iston and the heat developed is given out to the sink.
 4.The cylinder is once more put on the heat insulating stand and, by further placing weights on
the piston, the substance is compressed adiabatically. A further amount of work is done on the
substance and its temp rises. The process is continued until the temp rises once more to T 1 and
the state A is recovered. The curve Da represents the adiabatic compression.
 Area(ABB’A’+BCC’B’)-Area(CDD’C’+DAA’D’)=Area(ABCD)
Formula of efficiency of an engine:

 Where is the efficiency Q2 is the heat given to sink, Q1 is the heat converted to
work
 T2 is the temp of the sink, T1 is the temp of the source

 The efficiency of Carnot's reversible engine is independent of the working

substance and depends only on the absolute temperatures of the sink and the
source.
 For the engine to have 100% efficiency(=1), T2 must be 0. since, we cannot obtain
a sink at absolute 0, an engine with 100% efficiency is a practical impossibility.