Quantum Heat Engines; Multiple-State 1D Box System

Abstract

We evaluate quantum Otto, Diesel and Brayton cycles employing multiple-state 1D box system instead of ideal gas filled cylinder. The work and heat are extracted using the change in the expectation of Hamiltonian of the system which leads to the first law of thermodynamics to quantum system. The first law makes available to redefine the force which is in fact not well defined in a quantum mechanical system and then it is applied to define the quantum version of thermodynamic processes, i.e . isobaric, isovolume and adiabatic. As the results, the efficiency of quantum Otto engine depends only on the compression ratio and will be higher than the efficiency of quantum Diesel which can decrease by the widening of expansion under isobaric process. The efficiency of quantum Brayton engine may reach maximum on certain combination between the wide of box under isobaric expansion and compression, under certain conditions. The amount of levels participated in the quantum heat engine system will potentially reduce the performance of the quantum heat cycles consisting isobaric process, but it can be resisted using isobaric process controller.