Sadi carnot heat engine video

Heat engines like steam engine, gasoline engine, diesel engine or steam turbine convert heat to mechanical energy. They are based on cyclic processes in which the same states are passed through again and again.

The Carnot process, proposed and studied by Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot in 1824, is a special cyclic process significant for the theory of heat engines.

Sadi carnot heat engine video youtube

It is an idealized process for which the efficiency can be calculated rather easily.

An ideal gas (shown here in green) passes successively through the following processes:

• Isothermal expansion: The gas is in contact with a hot thermal reservoir (not shown) and expands at a constant temperature.

  Heat is transferred from the hot reservoir to the gas; the gas releases the same amount of energy to the environment in the form of work. The internal energy of the gas remains constant during this process.

• Isentropic (reversible adiabatic) expansion: The gas is now separated from the hot reservoir