News and views. Thermodynamics: cool sounds
News and views. Thermodynamics: cool sounds
The turbines and crankshafts of the mechanical engineers have proved to be very useful, as everyone knows. But they produce noise, and unfortunately need oiling every now and again. How much better if engines could be constructed whose moving parts have been eliminated! Solar cells, for the production of electricity, are one way to go: the result is an elegant 'engine' in which only the electrons are the moving parts. In a paper1 in Physical Review Letters, Reid, Ward and Swift describe another, but less familiar, transition to engines without moving parts. Moreover, by using a single gas both as the working part of the engine and as a heat-exchange medium, an old theoretical efficiency limit can be transgressed.
623-624
Landsberg, Peter T.
cd811241-233f-4791-baa6-3c1abfc4cf8b
1998
Landsberg, Peter T.
cd811241-233f-4791-baa6-3c1abfc4cf8b
Landsberg, Peter T.
(1998)
News and views. Thermodynamics: cool sounds.
Nature, 394 (6694), .
(doi:10.1038/29184).
Abstract
The turbines and crankshafts of the mechanical engineers have proved to be very useful, as everyone knows. But they produce noise, and unfortunately need oiling every now and again. How much better if engines could be constructed whose moving parts have been eliminated! Solar cells, for the production of electricity, are one way to go: the result is an elegant 'engine' in which only the electrons are the moving parts. In a paper1 in Physical Review Letters, Reid, Ward and Swift describe another, but less familiar, transition to engines without moving parts. Moreover, by using a single gas both as the working part of the engine and as a heat-exchange medium, an old theoretical efficiency limit can be transgressed.
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Published date: 1998
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 29478
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/29478
ISSN: 0028-0836
PURE UUID: 744ce779-ca22-484e-8bf2-92ebbea5cbe3
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 02 May 2007
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 07:32
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Peter T. Landsberg
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics