{"title":"Exploring counterclockwise thermodynamic cycles","authors":"Randall D. Knight","doi":"10.1119/5.0152547","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"A common belief is that any closed, counterclockwise cycle on a pV diagram represents a refrigerator or heat pump. It has been established that this is not the case, but previous papers on this topic have made unnecessary assumptions about the temperatures of the energy reservoirs and about how the system exchanges energy with the reservoirs. Relaxing these assumptions leads to a wide array of unexpected behaviors. In some cases, the same pV cycle can be a heat pump, a cold pump, or a Joule pump simply by changing how the system is connected to the reservoirs. This paper explores the strange world of counterclockwise cycles.","PeriodicalId":7589,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Physics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"American Journal of Physics","FirstCategoryId":"101","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0152547","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
A common belief is that any closed, counterclockwise cycle on a pV diagram represents a refrigerator or heat pump. It has been established that this is not the case, but previous papers on this topic have made unnecessary assumptions about the temperatures of the energy reservoirs and about how the system exchanges energy with the reservoirs. Relaxing these assumptions leads to a wide array of unexpected behaviors. In some cases, the same pV cycle can be a heat pump, a cold pump, or a Joule pump simply by changing how the system is connected to the reservoirs. This paper explores the strange world of counterclockwise cycles.
期刊介绍:
The mission of the American Journal of Physics (AJP) is to publish articles on the educational and cultural aspects of physics that are useful, interesting, and accessible to a diverse audience of physics students, educators, and researchers. Our audience generally reads outside their specialties to broaden their understanding of physics and to expand and enhance their pedagogical toolkits at the undergraduate and graduate levels.