What is a carnot engine?
1 Answer
A Carnot's engine is an idealised engine whose working is perfectly reversible. This engine uses an ideal gas as the working substance and performs a 4-stroke process to complete one cycle.
It draws heat (say
Explanation:
The Carnot's engine is a reversible engine working between two temperature limits.
The complete cycle incorporates -
1) Isothermal expansion of ideal gas at the temperature of the source
2) Adiabatic expansion of ideal gas. In this process, the temperature of the ideal gas falls from source temperature
3) Isothermal compression of ideal gas at sink temperature
4) Adiabatic compression of ideal gas where the temperature naturally raises from
The efficiency is given as
Thus,
This gives,
It may be shown thermodynamically that