Heat engine

In engineering and thermodynamics, a heat engine performs the conversion of heat energy to mechanical work by exploiting the temperature gradient between a hot "source" and a cold "sink". Heat is transferred to the sink from the source, and in this process some of the heat is converted into work.

Engineering and physical concepts

Examples of heat engines:

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• Vapor power cycles. In these cycles and engines the working fluids are gases and liquids:
• Rankine cycle (steam engine)
• Regenerative cycle Are more efficient than Rankine cycle.
• Gas power cycles. In these cycles and engines the working fluid are always like gas:
• Carnot cycle (Carnot heat engine)
• Brayton cycle or Joule cycle (gas turbine)
• Ericsson Cycle
• Stirling cycle (Stirling engine)
• Internal combustion engine (ICE):
• Otto cycle (eg. Gasoline/Petrol engine, high-speed diesel engine)
• Diesel cycle (eg. low-speed diesel engine)
• Atkinson Cycle
• Lenoir cycle (eg pulse jet engine)
• Direct Conversion
• thermoelectric (Peltier-Seebeck effect)
• thermionic emission
• Refrigeration (a refrigerator is a heat pump: a heat engine in reverse. Work is used to create a heat differential.)
• Carnot refrigerator
• Vuilleumier refrigerator
• Absorption refrigerator