Isothermal countercurrent cycle

An Isothermal countercurrent cycle (newly coined term) is a thermodynamic cycle comprising isothermal compression, isobaric heating with expansion, isothermal expansion, and isobaric cooling with compression. It is sometimes called Ericsson's second cycle. The isobaric steps take place in a countercurrent heat exchanger. In principle, all of the heat absorbed in the isobaric expansion process is provided by the isobaric compression process, and the work done by isobaric expansion exactly counterbalances the work absorbed by isobaric compression.


 * Planning to move all of the discussion about how the isobaric steps cancel each other out, and calculations of volumes of gas to handle a given amount of heat, etc. here. Archimerged 11:27, 1 July 2006 (UTC)