Influence of variable specific heats of working fluid on performance of an endoreversible Meletis–Georgiou cycle

Abstract

An endoreversible Meletis–Georgiou (MG) cycle model considering heat transfer loss and linear relation between the specific heat of working fluid and its temperature is established. The cycle performance is analysed and optimised. The relations between the work output and compression ratio, between the efficiency and compression ratio as well as the work output and efficiency are obtained by detailed numerical example, respectively. The relations between the optimal compression ratio regions and design parameters are obtained by optimising the cycle performance. The effects of the heat transfer loss and variable specific heats of working fluid on the cycle performance are analysed. The results show that the cycle model considering the variable specific heats of working fluid is closer to practice.

Keywords:

• finite-time thermodynamics
• endoreversible Meletis–Georgiou cycle
• variable specific heats of working fluid

Acknowledgements

This article is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of P.R. China (project no. 10905093), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of P.R. China (project no. NCET-04-1006) and the Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of P.R. China (project no. 200136).