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.