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Re: [Phys-L] ICE efficiency and cost was: axes versus contours



Right; capital investment includes not only initial cost but also
maintenance and replacement.

Bruce


On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 11:33 PM, Bernard Cleyet <bernardcleyet@redshift.com
wrote:


On 2013, Mar 18, , at 14:46, Bruce Sherwood <Bruce_Sherwood@ncsu.edu>
wrote:

Years ago a colleague at UIUC, Jim Smith, pointed out to me that if fuel
is
cheap but capital investment in engines is expensive, you want to run at
maximum power, whereas if fuel is expensive and capital investment in
engines is cheap, you can run near reversibly by having a huge number of
engines to get the nonzero power you need.


This also involves the life of an engine -- A robust engine may tilt the
balance (between engine and fuel costs) compared to a typical engine.

Atkinson modification of the Otto cycle improves thermo.efficiency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson_cycle

bc