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Thermodynamics Assignment on Heat Engines

This document outlines Assignment 3 for PHYS 3031 Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics, due on February 10, 2025. It includes problems related to heat engines, the second law of thermodynamics, isotherms versus adiabats, the efficiency of a Joule cycle, and calculations involving a heat pump and a Carnot engine. Students are instructed to show all steps and provide clear illustrations where necessary.

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86 views1 page

Thermodynamics Assignment on Heat Engines

This document outlines Assignment 3 for PHYS 3031 Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics, due on February 10, 2025. It includes problems related to heat engines, the second law of thermodynamics, isotherms versus adiabats, the efficiency of a Joule cycle, and calculations involving a heat pump and a Carnot engine. Students are instructed to show all steps and provide clear illustrations where necessary.

Uploaded by

deathhades507
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

PHYS 3031 Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics

Assignment 3
Due: 11:00 am, 10 February 2025 (Monday). Late submission will not be accepted. Show all steps.
3.0 Reading Assignment: This assignment deals with heat engines and a bit of entropy. Chapters 13 and
14 of Blundell and Blundell, Chapters 4 and 5 of Adkins, Chapter 8 of Steane contain useful materials
to help you learn.
3.1 Review Kelvin’s statement and Clausius’ statement on the second law. Show, with clear illustrations,
that the two statements are equivalent.
3.2 Isotherms versus adiabats
Consider an ideal gas with constant heat capacities. Show that the adiabat crossing a particular point
(p0 , V0 ) on the p–V indicator diagram is steeper than the isotherm crossing the same point.
3.3 Efficiency of a Joule cycle
A Joule cycle is formed by two isobars and two adiabats (see Figure 1). Assume that the cycle
is operated as a heat engine (1→2→3→4→1), and that the working substance is an ideal gas with
constant heat capacities. The pressure and volume at position i are pi and Vi , respectively. Show that
the efficiency is
 (γ−1)/γ
p1
η =1− .
p2
Warning: This can be messy if you are not careful. Pay attention on the sign of work done and heat.
Keep your handwriting tidy!

2 3
p

1 4

Figure 1: p − V diagram for the Joule cycle

3.4 This is Steane 8.1, Blundell & Blundell 13.8


A building is maintained at a temperature T by means of an ideal heat pump, which uses a river at a
lower temperature T0 as a source of heat. The heat pump consumes power W , and the building loses
heat to its surroundings at a rate α(T − T0 ), where α is a positive constant. Show that
W p
T = T0 + (1 + 1 + 4αT0 /W ).
2α

3.5 A Carnot engine operates on 1 kg of CH4 , which can be approximated as an ideal gas. The ratio of
the maximum volume to the minimum volume is 4, and the efficiency of the engine is 0.25. Find the
change of the entropy during the isothermal compression. Does the entropy increase or decrease during
the isothermal compression? Take γ=1.35.

— END —

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