Thermal efficiency of a heat engine
Description
Heat engines transform thermal energy, or heat into mechanical energy, or work. They cannot do this task perfectly, so some of the input heat energy is not converted into work, but is dissipated as waste heat into the environment. The thermal efficiency of a heat engine is the percentage of heat energy that is transformed into work.
Related formulasVariables
nth | Thermal efficiency (dimensionless) |
Qout | Themal energy(heat) (J) |
Qin | Waste heat (J) |