Related papers: Maximum efficiency of absorption refrigerators at …
We study the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of a heat engine operating between two finite-sized reservoirs with well-defined temperatures. Within the linear response regime, it is found that the uniform temperature of the two reservoirs at…
In a recent Letter [EPL, 118 (2017) 40003], Polettini and Esposito claimed that it is theoretically possible for a thermodynamic machine to achieve Carnot efficiency at divergent power output through the use of infinitely-fast processes. It…
Macroscopic cyclic heat engines have been a major motivation for the emergence of thermodynamics. In the last decade, cyclic heat engines that have large fluctuations and operate at finite time were studied within the more modern framework…
Various quantum systems are considered as the working substance for the analysis of quantum heat cycles and quantum refrigerators. The ongoing technological challenge is how efficiently can a heat engine convert thermal energy to mechanical…
We present a study of the performance of endoreversible thermal machines optimized with respect to the thermodynamic force associated with the cold bath in the regime of small thermodynamic forces. These thermal machines can work either as…
Fast and accurate large-scale energy system models are needed to investigate the potential of storage to complement the fluctuating energy production of renewable energy systems. However, standard Mixed-Integer Programming (MIP) models that…
The efficient conversion of thermal energy to mechanical work by a heat engine is an ongoing technological challenge. Since the pioneering work of Carnot, it is known that the efficiency of heat engines is bounded by a fundamental upper…
Heat engines used to output useful work have important practical significance, which, in general, operate between heat baths of infinite size and constant temperature. In this paper we study the efficiency of a heat engine operating between…
Situations where a spontaneous process of energy or matter transfer is enhanced by an external device are widespread in nature (human sweating system, enzyme catalysis, facilitated diffusion across bio-membranes, industrial heat…
Relativistic thermal devices offer a unique platform for understanding the interplay between motion, quantum fields, and thermodynamics, revealing phenomena inaccessible to stationary systems. We consider a two-qubit SWAP heat engine whose…
We consider a class of quantum heat engines consisting of two subsystems interacting via a unitary transformation and coupled to two separate baths at different temperatures $T_h > T_c$. The purpose of the engine is to extract work due to…
Low-dissipation model and the endoreversible model of heat engines are two of the most commonly studied models of machines in finite-time thermodynamics. In this paper, we compare the performance characteristics of these two models under…
The concepts of weighted reciprocal of temperature and weighted thermal flux are proposed for a heat engine operating between two heat baths and outputting mechanical work. With the aid of these two concepts, the generalized thermodynamic…
In quantum thermodynamics, effects of finiteness of the baths have been less considered. In particular, there is no general theory which focuses on finiteness of the baths of multiple conserved quantities. Then, we investigate how the…
The extension of thermodynamics into the quantum regime has received much attention in recent years. A primary objective of current research is to find thermodynamic tasks which can be enhanced by quantum mechanical effects. With this goal…
Absorption refrigerators are autonomous thermal machines that harness the spontaneous flow of heat from a hot bath into the environment in order to perform cooling. Here we discuss quantum realizations of absorption refrigerators in two…
The thermodynamics of the Curzon-Ahlborn engine, which is a prototype of endoreversible engines, is elucidated. In particular, their criterion for adiabatic equilibration is revised. The so-called irreversibility of endoreversible engines…
The efficiency at the maximum power (EMP) for finite-time Carnot engines established with the low-dissipation model, relies significantly on the assumption of the inverse proportion scaling of the irreversible entropy generation $\Delta…
We derive upper and lower bounds for the efficiency of an isothermal molecular machine operating at maximum power. The upper bound is reached when the activated state is close to the fueling or reactant state (Eyring-like), while the lower…
The efficiency of an heat engine is traditionally defined as the ratio of its average output work over its average input heat. Its highest possible value was discovered by Carnot in 1824 and is a cornerstone concept in thermodynamics. It…