scholarly journals Quantum Heat Engines with Complex Working Media, Complete Otto Cycles and Heuristics

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 1149
Author(s):  
Ramandeep S. Johal ◽  
Venu Mehta

Quantum thermal machines make use of non-classical thermodynamic resources, one of which include interactions between elements of the quantum working medium. In this paper, we examine the performance of a quasi-static quantum Otto engine based on two spins of arbitrary magnitudes subject to an external magnetic field and coupled via an isotropic Heisenberg exchange interaction. It has been shown earlier that the said interaction provides an enhancement of cycle efficiency, with an upper bound that is tighter than the Carnot efficiency. However, the necessary conditions governing engine performance and the relevant upper bound for efficiency are unknown for the general case of arbitrary spin magnitudes. By analyzing extreme case scenarios, we formulate heuristics to infer the necessary conditions for an engine with uncoupled as well as coupled spin model. These conditions lead us to a connection between performance of quantum heat engines and the notion of majorization. Furthermore, the study of complete Otto cycles inherent in the average cycle also yields interesting insights into the average performance.

Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 978
Author(s):  
Nathan M. Myers ◽  
Jacob McCready ◽  
Sebastian Deffner

By harnessing quantum phenomena, quantum devices have the potential to outperform their classical counterparts. Here, we examine using wave function symmetry as a resource to enhance the performance of a quantum Otto engine. Previous work has shown that a bosonic working medium can yield better performance than a fermionic medium. We expand upon this work by incorporating a singular interaction that allows the effective symmetry to be tuned between the bosonic and fermionic limits. In this framework, the particles can be treated as anyons subject to Haldane’s generalized exclusion statistics. Solving the dynamics analytically using the framework of “statistical anyons”, we explore the interplay between interparticle interactions and wave function symmetry on engine performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-17
Author(s):  
Jukka P. Pekola

Low temperature phenomena and methods are quantum thermodynamics per se. Modern engineered quantum systems, for instance those used for superconducting quantum information processing and mesoscopic electron transport, provide working media for realizing devices such as quantum heat engines and refrigerators and a testbed for fundamental principles and phenomena in thermodynamics of quantum systems and processes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 281-285
Author(s):  
A. V. Martynov ◽  
N. E. Kutko

The article deals with the problem of waste disposal and, accordingly, landfills in the Moscow Region, which have now become the number 1 problem for the environment in Moscow and the Moscow Region. To solve this problem, incineration plants (IP) will be established in the near future. 4 plants will be located in the Moscow Region that will be able to eliminate 2800 thousand tons of waste per year. Burning of waste results in formation of slag making 25% of its volume, which has a very high temperature (1300.1500°C). An arrangement is considered, in which slag is sent to a water bath and heats the water to 50.90°C. This temperature is sufficient to evaporate any low-temperature substance (freons, limiting hydrocarbons, etc.), whereupon the steam of the low-temperature working medium is sent to a turbine, which produces additional electricity. The creation of a low-temperature thermal power plant (TPP) increases the reliability of electricity generation at the IP. The operation of low-temperature TPPs due to the heat of slag is very efficient, their efficiency factor being as high as 40.60%. In addition to the efficiency of TPPs, capital costs for the creation of additional devices at the IP are of great importance. Thermal power plants operating on slag are just such additional devices, so it is necessary to minimize the capital costs of their creation. In addition to equipment for the operation of TPPs, it is necessary to have a working medium in an amount determined by calculations. From the wide variety of working media, which are considered in the article, it is necessary to choose the substance with the lowest cost.


2021 ◽  
Vol 126 (21) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry J. D. Miller ◽  
M. Hamed Mohammady ◽  
Martí Perarnau-Llobet ◽  
Giacomo Guarnieri

Author(s):  
Stanislav N. Danov ◽  
Ashwani K. Gupta

Abstract In the companion Part 1 of this two-part series paper several improvements to the mathematical model of the energy conversion processes, taking place in a diesel engine cylinder, have been proposed. Analytical mathematical dependencies between thermal parameters (pressure, temperature, volume) and caloric parameters (internal energy, enthalpy, specific heat capacities) have been obtained. These equations have been used to provide an improved mathematical model of diesel engine indicator process. The model is based on the first law of thermodynamics, by taking into account imperfections in the working media which appear when working under high pressures and temperatures. The numerical solution of the simultaneous differential equations is obtained by Runge-Kutta type method. The results show that there are significant differences between the values calculated by equations for ideal gas and real gas under conditions of high pressures and temperatures. These equations are then used to solve the desired practical problem in two different two-stroke turbo-charged engines (8DKRN 74/160 and Sulzer-RLB66). The numerical experiments show that if the pressure is above 8 to 9 MPa, the working medium imperfections must be taken into consideration. The mathematical model presented here can also be used to model combustion process of other thermal engines, such as advanced gas turbine engines and rockets.


Quantum ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mischa P. Woods ◽  
Nelly Huei Ying Ng ◽  
Stephanie Wehner

Sadi Carnot's theorem regarding the maximum efficiency of heat engines is considered to be of fundamental importance in thermodynamics. This theorem famously states that the maximum efficiency depends only on the temperature of the heat baths used by the engine, but not on the specific structure of baths. Here, we show that when the heat baths are finite in size, and when the engine operates in the quantum nanoregime, a revision to this statement is required. We show that one may still achieve the Carnot efficiency, when certain conditions on the bath structure are satisfied; however if that is not the case, then the maximum achievable efficiency can reduce to a value which is strictly less than Carnot. We derive the maximum efficiency for the case when one of the baths is composed of qubits. Furthermore, we show that the maximum efficiency is determined by either the standard second law of thermodynamics, analogously to the macroscopic case, or by the non increase of the max relative entropy, which is a quantity previously associated with the single shot regime in many quantum protocols. This relative entropic quantity emerges as a consequence of additional constraints, called generalized free energies, that govern thermodynamical transitions in the nanoregime. Our findings imply that in order to maximize efficiency, further considerations in choosing bath Hamiltonians should be made, when explicitly constructing quantum heat engines in the future. This understanding of thermodynamics has implications for nanoscale engineering aiming to construct small thermal machines.


2004 ◽  
Vol 51 (16-18) ◽  
pp. 2713-2725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan E. Hill ◽  
Yuri V. Rostovtsev ◽  
Marlan O. Scully

Author(s):  
Rudolf Hanel ◽  
Petr Jizba

Even though irreversibility is one of the major hallmarks of any real-life process, an actual understanding of irreversible processes remains still mostly semi-empirical. In this paper, we formulate a thermodynamic uncertainty principle for irreversible heat engines operating with an ideal gas as a working medium. In particular, we show that the time needed to run through such an irreversible cycle multiplied by the irreversible work lost in the cycle is bounded from below by an irreducible and process-dependent constant that has the dimension of an action. The constant in question depends on a typical scale of the process and becomes comparable to Planck’s constant at the length scale of the order Bohr radius, i.e. the scale that corresponds to the smallest distance on which the ideal gas paradigm realistically applies. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Fundamental aspects of nonequilibrium thermodynamics’.


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