Eur. Phys. J. B 48, 101-106 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2005-00383-0

Heat flow and efficiency in a microscopic engine

¹ School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, South China Normal University, 510631 GuangZhou, P.R. China
² Department of Physics, South China University of Technology, 510641 GuangZhou, P.R. China
³ Department of Physics, ZhongShan University, 510275 GuangZhou, P.R. China

Corresponding author: ^a aibq@scnu.edu.cn

Received: 6 September 2005
Published online: 9 December 2005

Abstract

We study the energetics of a thermal motor driven by temperature differences, which consists of a Brownian particle moving in a sawtooth potential with an external load where the viscous medium is periodically in contact with hot and cold heat reservoir along space coordinate. The motor can work as a heat engine or a refrigerator under different conditions. The heat flow via both potential and kinetic energy is considered. The former is reversible when the engine works quasistatically and the latter is always irreversible. The efficiency of the heat engine can never approach Carnot efficiency.