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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.

Heat engine processes

Each process is one of the following:

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  • isothermal (at constant temperature, maintained with heat added or removed from a heat source or sink)
  • isobaric (at constant pressure)
  • isometric/isochoric (at constant volume)
  • adiabatic (no heat is added or removed from the working fluid)