Curie engine efficiency
Date: Friday, August 15, 2003 @ 23:19:33 UTC
Topic: Science
A Curie engine is a type of heat engine that works by removing an object from a permanent magnetic field by heating it to its Curie point. The magnetically inactive object is then allowed to fall away from the magnetic field, and regain its potential energy as it cools. Does anyone understand how Carnot efficiency relates to them?
Leo C has a good survey of things Curie engine at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_energy/message/6934. Especially interesting is this type I perpetual motion machine described by Harold Aspden. The reason the Aspden machine does not work is that the amount of energy required to make a material nonmagnetic increases with the strength of the magnetic field it's in, as described by John Kernthaler in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_energy/message/6876. So Kernthaler provides the subtle explanation for how the first law of thermodynamics is expressed in this system. But what about the second? How is this type of machine governed by Carnot efficiency? It seems that this machine should work *best* in warm rooms and a small heat difference. That can't be right. But why not?
Google searched for "Curie engine" with entropy, Carnot, efficiency, and even my standby hyperphysics haven't helped.
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