The efficiency of endoreversible heat engines with heat leak

Abstract

Finite-time thermodynamics are used for studying the performance of endoreversible heat engines with heat leak. A comprehensive formulation and a general solution methodology, valid for any mode of heat supply or release, are presented. Detailed analyses are conducted for several heat transfer modes and universal analytical and numerical results for the efficiency at maximum power are generated. Many established laws and major conclusions derived in several references are shown to represent very special cases of the new formulation. Furthermore, the nature of the leakage power law is found to deeply affect the efficiency at maximum power. Finally, for no leakage situations, if the heat to the engine is supplied and released via similar heat transfer modes, then the lowest efficiency at maximum power, when the only thermal resistance is between the working fluid and the hot reservoir, is found to be given by 1/n, n being the power of the heat transfer law.