Efficiency of an arrangement in series of irreversible thermal engines working at maximum power.

Within the context of finite-time thermodynamics several regimes of performance have been used to study the well known Curzon-Ahlborn (CA) heat engine model [1-5]. Also the optimal performance and the effects on environment are studied to find the best approximation with real heat engines.

In this work we present a model of an arrangement in series of irreversible Carnot heat engines, which consist of k reservoirs connected in series, this heat engine model is working under three different regime of performance: maximum power output, maximum ecological function [6] and maximum efficient power [7]. At first we used three reservoirs, and we calculated its efficiency. For the case of maximum power output we calculated the efficiency for the case of the generalizing of k reservoirs, and we get an efficiency expression similar to the one of Curzon-Ahlborn, the irreversibilities are taken into account by irreversibility parameter R. Finally we present the comparison of the efficiencies obtained under three differents regimes of performance.