Hi Jnadke,
I have heard this term 'carnot efficiency', and not being an engineer, I don't understand it fully. So basically this is the limit of the efficiency of any heat engine. This also means that it wouldn't apply fully to a device that works on the thermoelectric effect, is this true ? So then a thermelectric device could reach an efficiency higher than the carnot limit, but a Stirling engine couldn't.
As far as the limit of a Stirling engine, I have seen Stirling engine configurations before, where they were hooked up in tandem, so that the excess heat from one engine was contributed to the heat input of another Stirling engine. If this type of configuration works, then I suppose you could get much closer to the Carnot limit. But could the limit theoretically be exceeded with such a configuration ? I guess the Carnot principle is meant to be applied to an 'individual mechanical system'.
Seeker
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