INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SPACE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
DUAL DEGREE ENGINEERING PHYSICS

AE216 THERMODYNAMICS : ASSIGNMENT – 5

Last date of submission : 16 October 2018

1. A Carnot engine operates between two temperature reservoirs maintained at 200◦ C and 20◦ C,
respectively. If the desired output of the engine is 15 kW, determine the heat transfer from the
high-temperature reservoir and the heat transfer to the low-temperature reservoir.

2. A refrigeration unit is cooling a space to −5◦ C by rejecting energy to the atmosphere at 20◦ C. It
is desired to reduce the temperature in the refrigerated space to −25◦ C. Calculate the minimum
percentage increase in work required, by assuming a Carnot refrigerator, for the same amount
of energy removed.

3. An inventor proposes an engine that operates between the 27◦ C warm surface layer of the ocean
and a 10◦ C layer a few meters down. The inventor claims that the engine produces 100 kW by
pumping 20 kg/s of seawater. Is this possible?

4. A Carnot engine operates between reservoirs at temperatures T1 , and T2 , and a second Carnot
engine operates between reservoirs maintained at T2 and T3 . Express the efficiency η3 of the
third engine operating between T1 , and T3 in terms of the efficiencies η1 and η2 of the other
two engines.

5. Imagine an irreversible engine I and a Carnot engine R operating between the same two reser-
voirs. Suppose that they absorb different amounts of heat from the high-temperature reservoir,
perform different amounts of work, but reject the same amounts of heat to the low-temperature
reservoir. Prove Carnot’s theorem with the aid of the Kelvin-Planck statement of the second
law.

6. During January, at a location in Alaska winds at −30◦ C can be observed, However, several
meters below ground the temperature remains at 13◦ C. An inventor claims to have devised a
power cycle working between these temperatures having a thermal efficiency of 5%. Investigate
this claim.

7. An inventor claims to have devised a refrigeration cycle operating between hot and cold reser-
voirs at 300 K and 250 K, respectively, that removes an amount of energy QC by heat transfer
from the cold reservoir that is a multiple of the net work input – that is, QC = NWcycle , where
all quantities are positive. Determine the maximum theoretical value of the number N for any
such cycle.

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8. Air within a piston-cylinder assembly executes a Carnot heat pump cycle. For the cycle, TH =
600 K and TC = 300 K. The energy rejected by heat transfer at 600 K has a magnitude of 250 kJ
per kg of air. The pressure at the start of the isothermal expansion is 325 kPa. Assuming the
ideal gas model for the air, determine (a) the magnitude of the net work input, in kJ per kg of
air, and (b) the pressure at the end of the isothermal expansion, in kPa.