Question

Explain how the ideal vapour compression refrigerator cycle is an improvement upon the Carnot cycle. Use any two of the problems to explain.

Answer 1

• answer explanation:

• Basically, the Carnot cycle is turning a heat differential into mechanical energy, then using mechanical energy to recreate the heat differential. A heat pump only turns mechanical energy into a heat differential. It exchanges the gas being compressed on an ongoing basis and does not extract mechanical energy from it, this continuous loss of mechanical energy input is what allows continuous generation of a heat differential.

• Also, the Carnot cycle is an idealized theoretical model, not a practically achievable engineering goal. It illustrates the essential mechanism by which heat differentials can be turned into mechanical energy and vice versa, it has to ignore the fact of inefficiency in conversion between mechanical energy and heat differential for the sake of illustrating a set of ideal processes. A real refrigeration system has to deal with the question of whether the system is pumping away more heat than it generates itself through inefficiency.