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An Effective Flux Framework for Linear Irreversible Heat Engines: Case Study of a Thermoelectric Generator
Jasleen Kaur1, Ramandeep S Johal1
1Department of Physical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali, Sector 81 SAS Nagar, Manauli 140306, Punjab, India.
Abstract:
We consider an autonomous heat engine in simultaneous contact with a hot and a cold reservoir and describe it within a linear irreversible framework. In a tight-coupling approximation, the rate of entropy generation is effectively written in terms of a single thermal flux that is a homogeneous function of the hot and cold fluxes. The specific algebraic forms of the effective flux are deduced for scenarios containing internal and external irreversibilities for the typical example of a thermoelectric generator.
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