TITLE:
Thermodynamics and Irreversibility: From Some Paradoxes to the Efficiency of Effective Engines
AUTHORS:
Olivier Serret
KEYWORDS:
Heat Transfer, External and Internal Pressure Work, Internal Energy, Reversible and Irreversible, Joule’s Law and Joule’s Experiments, Adiabatic and Free Expansion, Clapeyron Diagram, Carnot Cycle, Engine Efficiency
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Modern Physics,
Vol.5 No.16,
October
20,
2014
ABSTRACT: The traditional thermodynamic theory explains
the reversible phenomena quite well, except that reversible phenomena are rare
or even impossible in practice. Here the purpose is to propose an explanation
valid for reversible and also irreversible phenomena, irreversibility being
common or realistic. It previously exposed points tricky to grasp, as the sign
of the work exchange, the adiabatic expansion in vacuum (free expansion) or the
transfer of heat between two bodies at the same temperature (isothermal
transfer). After having slightly modified the concepts of heat transfer (each
body produces heat according to its own temperature) and work (distinguishing
external pressure from internal pressure), the previous points are more easily
explained. At last, an engine efficiency in case of irreversible transfer is
proposed. This paper is focused on the form of thermodynamics, on “explanations”;
it does not question on “results” (except the irreversible free expansion of
1845...) which remain unchanged.