Efficiency at maximum power: An analytically solvable model for stochastic heat engines

By Tim Schmiedl, U. Seifert. 2007

434 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We study a class of cyclic Brownian heat engines in the framework of finite-time thermodynamics. For infinitely long cycle times, the engine works at the Carnot efficiency limit producing, however, zero power. For the efficiency at maximum power, we find a universal expression, different from the endoreversible Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency. Our results are illustrated with a simple one-dimensional engine working in and with a time-dependent harmonic potential.

Subfields: Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/47f110a452e18a8b427a1352f8e4982296f9b45b

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Citations in the corpus

Quantum thermodynamics (2015, result): “For instance, see [164, 165] for results generalising the Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency to stochastic thermodynamics and to quantum systems with other constraints.”
Fundamental aspects of steady-state conversion of heat to work at the nanoscale (2016, methodology): “Another expression for the efficiency at maximum power was obtained by Schmiedl and Seifert [456], using a model of stochastic cyclic heat engine which we shall describe in section 12.1.”
Stochastic thermodynamics, fluctuation theorems and molecular machines (2012, background): “For total entropy production as objective function, turning an earlier scaling argument [261] into a mathematical proof, a general bound can thus be derived, ∆S ≥ C/t valid for any t, where C depends on the given initial and final distribution [262].”
Thermodynamics of Micro- and Nano-Systems Driven by Periodic Temperature Variations (2015, positive): “[14], this model has recently been realized in a remarkable experiment [2] and can be used to illustrate various aspects of stochastic thermodynamics like the role of feedback [49,50] and shortcuts to adiabaticity [51].”
Refined Second Law of Thermodynamics for Fast Random Processes (2012, background): “to models of molecular motors and to optimization of their efficiency) is among natural directions of further research, see [20, 49] and the references therein.”
Stochastic mechano-chemical kinetics of molecular motors: A multidisciplinary enterprise from a physicist’s perspective (2012, background): “Just like the performance of their macroscopic counterparts with finite cycle time, that of molecular motors [370] have also been characterized in terms of efficiency at maximum power, rather than maximum efficiency.”