Substance Independence of Efficiency of a Class of Heat Engines Undergoing Two Isothermal Processes

Abstract

Three power producing cycles have been so far known that include two isothermal processes, namely, Carnot, Stirling, and Ericsson. It is well known that the efficiency of the Carnot cycle represented by 1−𝑇𝐿/𝑇𝐻 is independent of its working fluid. Using fundamental relationships between thermodynamic properties including Maxwell's relationships, this paper shows in a closed form that the Ericsson and the Stirling cycles also possess the Carnot efficiency irrespective of the nature of the working gas.