On the maximum efficiency of realistic heat engines

TL;DR

This paper derives the maximum efficiency of realistic heat engines without explicit reference to time, improving the theoretical understanding of their performance beyond traditional Carnot limits.

Contribution

It provides a novel derivation of heat engine efficiency that omits explicit time dependence, aligning better with classical thermodynamics principles.

Findings

Derived efficiency expression without explicit time dependence

Improved theoretical model for real heat engine performance

Aligns with classical thermodynamics framework

Abstract

In 1975, Courzon and Ahlborn studied a Carnot engine with thermal losses and got an expression for its efficiency that described better the performance of actual heat machines than the traditional result due to Carnot. In their original derivation, time appears explicitly and this is disappointing in the framework of classical thermodynamics. In this note a derivation is given without any explicit reference to time.