Teaching Reitlinger Cycles To Improve Students’ Knowledge And Comprehension Of Thermodynamics

The second law of thermodynamics puts a limit on the thermal efficiency of heat engines. This limit value is the efficiency of the ideal reversible engine represented by the Carnot cycle. During the lectures on physics, the emphasis on this cycle is generally so strong that students could be induced to consider the Carnot cycle as the only cycle having the best thermal efficiency. In fact, an entire class of cycles exists possessing the same maximum efficiency: this class is that of the regenerative Reitlinger cycles. Here we propose to teach also these cycles to the engineering students of physics classes, to improve their knowledge and comprehension of thermodynamics.