Connection between maximum-work and maximum-power thermal cycles

Abstract

We propose a new connection between maximum-power Curzon-Ahlborn thermal cycles and maximum-work reversible cycles. This linkage is built through a mapping between the exponents of a class of heat transfer laws and the exponents of a family of heat capacities depending on temperature. This connection leads to the recovery of known results and to a wide and interesting set of new results for a class of thermal cycles. Among other results we find that it is possible to use analytically closed expressions for maximum-work efficiencies to calculate good approaches to maximum-power efficiencies.