<!DOCTYPE html>
<html class="writer-html5" lang="en" >
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>4. Heat engines — Thermal machines 1.0 documentation</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="_static/css/theme.css" type="text/css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" />
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
<script src="_static/js/html5shiv.min.js"></script>
<![endif]-->
<script type="text/javascript" id="documentation_options" data-url_root="./" src="_static/documentation_options.js"></script>
<script src="_static/jquery.js"></script>
<script src="_static/underscore.js"></script>
<script src="_static/doctools.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="_static/js/theme.js"></script>
<link rel="index" title="Index" href="genindex.html" />
<link rel="search" title="Search" href="search.html" />
<link rel="next" title="4.1. Reciprocating internal combustion engine" href="chap4_1RICE.html" />
<link rel="prev" title="3.3. Overview of comp/exp systems" href="chap3_3Overview.html" />
</head>
<body class="wy-body-for-nav">
<div class="wy-grid-for-nav">
<nav data-toggle="wy-nav-shift" class="wy-nav-side">
<div class="wy-side-scroll">
<div class="wy-side-nav-search" >
<a href="index.html" class="icon icon-home" alt="Documentation Home"> Thermal machines
</a>
<div class="version">
1.0
</div>
<div role="search">
<form id="rtd-search-form" class="wy-form" action="search.html" method="get">
<input type="text" name="q" placeholder="Search docs" />
<input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" />
<input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" />
</form>
</div>
</div>
<div class="wy-menu wy-menu-vertical" data-spy="affix" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation">
<p class="caption"><span class="caption-text">Contents:</span></p>
<ul class="current">
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="chap1_balanceEquations_Chap.html">1. Balance equations</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="chap2_thermMachinesBasics_Chap.html">2. Thermal machines: Basics</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="chap3_CompExpGas_Chap.html">3. Compression / Expansion of Gas and vapors</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1 current"><a class="current reference internal" href="#">4. Heat engines</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="chap4_1RICE.html">4.1. Reciprocating internal combustion engine</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="chap4_3GasTurbines.html">4.2. Gas Turbines</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="chap4_4SteamTurbines.html">4.3. Steam turbines</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="chap4_5Cogeneration.html">4.4. Combined cycles / Cogeneration</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="chap5_ThermalGenerators_Chap.html">5. Heat pumps and refrigerators</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="zBibliography.html">6. References</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
<section data-toggle="wy-nav-shift" class="wy-nav-content-wrap">
<nav class="wy-nav-top" aria-label="top navigation">
<i data-toggle="wy-nav-top" class="fa fa-bars"></i>
<a href="index.html">Thermal machines</a>
</nav>
<div class="wy-nav-content">
<div class="rst-content">
<div role="navigation" aria-label="breadcrumbs navigation">
<ul class="wy-breadcrumbs">
<li><a href="index.html" class="icon icon-home"></a> »</li>
<li><span class="section-number">4. </span>Heat engines</li>
<li class="wy-breadcrumbs-aside">
<a href="_sources/chap4_ThermalEngines_Chap.rst.txt" rel="nofollow"> View page source</a>
</li>
</ul>
<hr/>
</div>
<div role="main" class="document" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/Article">
<div itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="section" id="heat-engines">
<h1><span class="section-number">4. </span>Heat engines<a class="headerlink" href="#heat-engines" title="Permalink to this headline">ΒΆ</a></h1>
<p><strong>Heat engine</strong> are <em>thermal energy converters</em>: they are producing a mechanical energy from thermal energy.
The <em>Carnot heat engine</em> (seen in <a class="reference internal" href="chap2_2Cycles.html#sec-chap2-carnot"><span class="std std-numref">Section 2.2.2.1: </span></a>) presents the maximum thermal efficiency but <em>Real heat engines</em> are generally not exchanging thermal energy using isothermal transformations.</p>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li><p>Thermal energy is generally obtained thanks to the combustion of a fuel with an oxidizer:</p></li>
</ol>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li><p>if the comustion occurs in the <em>working fluid</em>, we talk about <strong>internal combustion heat engines</strong>: this is the case for <em>car engines</em> or for <em>gas turbines</em> and <em>turbojets</em>.</p></li>
<li><p>if the combuston occurs outside, it is then tansmitted to the <em>working fluid</em> thanks to a <em>heat exchanger</em>. We talk about <strong>external combustion heat engines</strong>: this is the case for <em>Stirling engine</em> for example.</p></li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<ol class="arabic simple" start="2">
<li><p>As they are following a cycle, the fluid flow can be:</p></li>
</ol>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li><p>Discontinuous: We talk about <strong>reciprocating internal combustion engines</strong> as for the <em>spark-ignition engine</em> (gasoline engines) or for the <em>compression-ignition engine</em> (diesel engines).</p></li>
<li><p>Continuous: We talk about <strong>continuous combustion engines</strong>. This is the case for <em>gas turbines</em> and <em>turbojets</em>.</p></li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<div class="toctree-wrapper compound">
<p class="caption"><span class="caption-text">Contents:</span></p>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="chap4_1RICE.html">4.1. Reciprocating internal combustion engine</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="chap4_3GasTurbines.html">4.2. Gas Turbines</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="chap4_4SteamTurbines.html">4.3. Steam turbines</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="chap4_5Cogeneration.html">4.4. Combined cycles / Cogeneration</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<footer>
<div class="rst-footer-buttons" role="navigation" aria-label="footer navigation">
<a href="chap4_1RICE.html" class="btn btn-neutral float-right" title="4.1. Reciprocating internal combustion engine" accesskey="n" rel="next">Next <span class="fa fa-arrow-circle-right"></span></a>
<a href="chap3_3Overview.html" class="btn btn-neutral float-left" title="3.3. Overview of comp/exp systems" accesskey="p" rel="prev"><span class="fa fa-arrow-circle-left"></span> Previous</a>
</div>
<hr/>
<div role="contentinfo">
<p>
© Copyright 2019, Fabien Petitpas, AMU, Polytech Marseille ME
</p>
</div>
Built with <a href="http://sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a> using a
<a href="https://github.com/rtfd/sphinx_rtd_theme">theme</a>
provided by <a href="https://readthedocs.org">Read the Docs</a>.
</footer>
</div>
</div>
</section>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(function () {
SphinxRtdTheme.Navigation.enable(true);
});
</script>
</body>
</html>