Module 6: How Heat Transfer and Energy Transformation be Used to Do Work

HEAT PUMP
An object with a high temperature is said to be hot, and the word “hot” brings to mind the
word “heat.” Heat flows from a hotter object to a cooler object when the two objects are placed in
contact. It is for this reason that a pot of chocolate drink feels hot to the touch, while the scoop of
an ice cream feels cold. The temperature of hot chocolate is higher than the normal body
temperature of 37°C, while the temperature of an ice cream is lower than 37°C. When you touch a
cup of hot chocolate drink, heat flows the hotter cup into a cooler hand. When you touch a cone of
ice cream, heat again flows from hot to cold, in this case from the warmer hand into a colder cone.
The response of the nerves in the hand to the arrival or departure of heat prompts the brain to
identify the cup of chocolate drink as being hot and the cone of an ice cream as being cold.
How can we do the reverse? A heat pump is used to reverse the process. It is a device that
allows heat to transfer from a cold reservoir to a warmer one, which cannot happen spontaneously,
or on its own. Work is required for the heat to flow from a lower to a higher temperature. This work
is provided by the motor of a heat pump. The nonspontaneous process needs a heat pump in order
to reverse the process. Mechanical work should be applied so that heat could be transformed.
Heat flows normally from higher temperature to lower temperature. It is a natural or
spontaneous process. It does not require any external energy to occur. When heat flows from lower
temperature to higher temperature, it needs mechanical energy to happen. It is called a non-
spontaneous process. In so doing, work should be done.
Mechanical energy is required for this to happen. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is
applied here. It states that Heat will never of itself flow from a cold temperature to a hot
temperature object. The work is provided by the motor of the heat pump.

Refrigeration cycle
The refrigeration cycle starts and ends with the compressor. The refrigerant flows into the
Compressor where it is compressed and pressurized. At this point, the refrigerant is a hot gas. The
refrigerant is then pushed to the Condenser which turns the vapour into liquid and absorbs some of
the heat. The refrigerant then proceeds to the Expansion Valve where it expands, losing pressure
and heat.

The refrigerant coming out of the expansion valve is cold and slow due to the loss of pressure. It
enters the Evaporator in a liquid state where the exchange of heat takes place thus cooling the load
inside the refrigerator. As the gas cools down the load, it absorbs the heat which turns it into a gas.
The gas is then pushed back into the Compressor where it can start the cycle again.

Heat Engines
Work can be easily transformed into heat. It is very evident when doing work. All the work we
do in overcoming friction is completely changed to heat. Example, eating (which is a method of work
due to tearing and chewing food particles) can be completely converted into heat (which is the
product of mechanical and chemical combustion and absorption of nutrients occurred in the
digestive system). Reversing the process is impossible such as changing heat completely into work.
To make it possible, we have to convert some heat to mechanical work. This would happen only
using heat engines. Heat engine is a device that changes thermal energy into mechanical work. How
does it happen? What implication this will bring to the environment?

A device that changes thermal energy into mechanical work is a heat engine. A heat engine
consists of a gas confined by a piston in a chamber. If the gas is heated, it expands, making the
piston moves. A practical engine is operated through cycles; the piston has to move back and forth.
When the gas has heated, the piston moves up. When it is cooled, the piston moves downward. A
cycle of heating and cooling will move the piston up and down.

There are four cycle-stroke in a gasoline engine. In the intake stroke, the inlet valve opens,
the piston moves down as the fuel-air mixture fills in the cylinder. In compression stroke, the piston
moves up and compresses the mixture- -- adiabatically, since no heat transfer happens. The spark
plug ignites the mixture making its temperature high. The adiabatic process tends to push the
piston down, thus it is called power stroke. In exhaust stroke, the burned gases are pushed out of
the exhaust valve. The intake valve once again opens and the cycle repeats.

ACTIVITY 1: One... Two ... Ready Go!

Objective: Discuss the four-cycle stroke of a gasoline engine

Materials: Illustration of a four-cycle stroke engine

Procedure:
1. Study the figure below and fill in the columns of Table 1.
 Cycle Stroke Movement of the piston What happened to mixture of
gases?
Intake

Compression

Power
Exhaust