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The working substance of a certain Carnot engine is 1.50 mol of an ideal monatomic gas. During the isothermal expansion portion of this engine's cycle, the volume of the gas doubles, while during the adiabatic expansion the volume increases by a factor of 5.7. The work output of the engine is 940 J in each cycle. Compute the temperatures of the two reservoirs between which this engine

operates.

User Abdelsalam Megahed
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1 Answer

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17 votes

Answer:

The hot temperature is 157.5 K

The cold temperature is 48.8 K

Step-by-step explanation:

Step 1: Data given

The working substance of a certain Carnot engine is 1.50 mol of an ideal monatomic gas.

The volume increases by a factor of 5.7

The work output of the engine is 940 J in each cycle.

During the isothermal expansion portion of this engine's cycle, the volume of the gas doubles. This means V2 = 2*V1 (and V4 = 2*V3)

Step 2:For a carnot engine:

V2/V1 = V4/V3

Work = nR((T1)ln(V2/V1) - (T2)ln(V4/V3))

⇒with Work = the work done in the cycle = 940J

⇒with n = the number of moles = 1.50 moles

⇒with R = the gas constant = 8.314 J/mol*K

⇒with T1 = the hot temperature

⇒With T2⇒ the cold temperature

where R = 8.31 J/mol K Gas Constant

940J = 1.5moles * 8.314 J/mol*K * (T1*ln(2) - T2*ln(2)))

940 = 1.5 * 8.314 ln(2) * (T1-T2)

(T1-T2) = 940 / (1.5*8.314*ln(2))

(T1-T2) = 108.7K

For the reversible adiabatic expansion: T2 = T1*(V1/V2)^(R/Cv). Where V2/V1 = 5.7 (Because during the adiabatic expansion the volume increases by a factor of 5.7)

For a monatomic ideal gas, Cv = 3/2R

When we combine both, we'll have:

T2 = T1*(1/5.7)^(R/3/2R)

T2 = T1*(1/5.7)^(2/3)

T2= T1 * 0.31

Since we know that (T1-T2) = 108.7K

we have:

T1 - 0.31T1= 108.7K

0.69T1 = 108.7K

T1 = 157.5K

T2 = 157.5*0.31 = 48.8K

User Wklbeta
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