Available online
Description
The programme shows how theory can be used to influence the design of a practical heat engine and how the efficiency of practical engines can be computed.
The programme shows how theory can be used to influence the design of a practical heat engine and how the efficiency of practical engines can be computed.
| Module code and title: | ST285, "Solids, liquids and gases" |
|---|---|
| Item code: | ST285; 13 |
| First transmission date: | 28-07-1973 |
| Published: | 1973 |
| Rights Statement: | |
| Restrictions on use: | |
| Duration: | 00:21:50 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Ted Smith |
| Contributors: | Paul Clark; Alan Walton |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Caratheodory theory of thermodynamics; Engine design; Engine efficiency; Refrigerator |
| Footage description: | Paul Clark introduces the programme. He uses a graphics display to show how work on practical engines and irreversible processes led to knowledge of Clausius inequality, absolute temperature and entropy. Alan Walton with a small working Stirling engine. He explains how it works with the aid of an animated diagram. Paul Clark uses a graph of the process to explain how useful work is obtained from the Stirling cycle. He analyses the cycle mathematically with the aid of an animated graph. Clark points out where in the cycle heat is put in and taken out. Clark uses the graph to follow the process through in the reverse direction. Alan Walton reverses the Stirling engine to demonstrate that Paul Clark's theoretical prediction will work. Walton gives a brief definition of 'efficiency' in terms of heat engines. Paul Clark then works out a theoretical maximum efficiency for an engine working in a Stirling cycle. He uses a drawing board for his diagrams and calculations. Alan Walton, with animated diagrams of the Stirling engine piston mechanism, explains how the second piston makes the engine more efficient. Paul Clark uses the drawing board again to calculate the maximum theoretical efficiency for the Stirling cycle. Alan Walton measures the efficiency of the Stirling engine in the studio. He compares this with the maximum theoretical efficiency, Paul Clark sums up. |
| Master spool number: | 6HT/70989 |
| Production number: | 00525_1037 |
| Videofinder number: | 690 |
| Available to public: | no |
