In 1816 Robert Stirling, a Scottish clergyman, patented the Stirling engine, which has found a wide variety of applications ever since. Fuel is burned externally to warm one of the engine’s two cylinders. A fixed quantity of inert gas moves cyclically between the cylinders, expanding in the hot one and contracting in the cold one. Figure P22.57 represents a model for its thermodynamic cycle. Consider n mol of an ideal monatomic gas being taken once through the cycle, consisting of two isothermal processes at temperatures 3Ti and Ti and two constant volume processes. Determine, in terms of n, R, and Ti,
(a) The net energy transferred by heat to the gas and
(b) The efficiency of the engine. A Stirling engine is easier to manufacture than an internal combustion engine or a turbine. It can run on burning garbage. It can run on the energy of sunlight and produce no material exhaust.
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