Heat transfer effect on the specific power availability of heat engines

Abstract The maximum possible specific power (specific power availability) that can be obtained from heat engines with a set of high temperature heat source and low temperature sink is analyzed. The heat engines considered in this paper include (1) externally and internally reversible, (2) externally irreversible and internally reversible, (3) externally reversible and internally irreversible and (4) externally and internally irreversible engines. The irreversibilities are assumed caused by heat transfer only. The specific power, defined as the power output per unit total heat exchanger surface area, is adopted as the objective function in determining power economics in this paper.