Cycling Tames Power Fluctuations near Optimum Efficiency

Viktor Holubec and Artem Ryabov
Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 120601 – Published 17 September 2018
PDFHTMLExport Citation

Abstract

According to the laws of thermodynamics, no heat engine can beat the efficiency of a Carnot cycle. This efficiency traditionally comes with vanishing power output and practical designs, optimized for power, generally achieve far less. Recently, various strategies to obtain Carnot’s efficiency at large power were proposed. However, a thermodynamic uncertainty relation implies that steady-state heat engines can operate in this regime only at the cost of large fluctuations that render them immensely unreliable. Here, we demonstrate that this unfortunate trade-off can be overcome by designs operating cyclically under quasistatic conditions. The experimentally relevant yet exactly solvable model of an overdamped Brownian heat engine is used to illustrate the formal result. Our study highlights that work in cyclic heat engines and that in quasistatic ones are different stochastic processes.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 16 May 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.120601

© 2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Statistical Physics & ThermodynamicsGeneral Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Viktor Holubec1,2,* and Artem Ryabov2

  • 1Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Leipzig, Postfach 100 920, D-04009 Leipzig, Germany
  • 2Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Department of Macromolecular Physics, V Holešovičkách 2, CZ-180 00 Praha, Czech Republic

  • *viktor.holubec@gmail.com

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

Supplemental Material (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 121, Iss. 12 — 21 September 2018

Reuse & Permissions
Access Options
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review Letters

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×