Cycles

Heat engines: Carnot’s bound and the idealized cycles of real engines.

Carnot’s Réflexions: no engine beats the reversible one (1824)

Carnot's Réflexions: no engine beats the reversible one (1824)

Rankine’s steam cycle (1859)

Rankine's steam cycle (1859)

Brayton’s constant-pressure cycle (1872)

Brayton's constant-pressure cycle (1872)

Otto’s four-stroke cycle (1876)

Otto's four-stroke cycle (1876)

Diesel’s compression-ignition cycle (1893)

Diesel's compression-ignition cycle (1893)

Curzon and Ahlborn: efficiency at maximum power (1975)

Curzon and Ahlborn: efficiency at maximum power (1975)