title: Work output and efficiency at maximum power of linear irreversible heat engines operating with a finite-sized heat source.
abstract: We formulate the work output and efficiency for linear irreversible heat engines working between a finite-sized hot heat source and an infinite-sized cold heat reservoir until the total system reaches the final thermal equilibrium state with a uniform temperature. We prove that when the heat engines operate at the maximum power under the tight-coupling condition without heat leakage the work output is just half of the exergy, which is known as the maximum available work extracted from a heat source. As a consequence, the corresponding efficiency is also half of its quasistatic counterpart.
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Sciences, Ochanomizu University, Tokyo 112-8610, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Izumida
authors.affiliation: Division of Physics, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan.
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okuda