Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAVol. 78, No. 4, pp. 1986-1988, April 1981Applied Physical SciencesFinite-time thermodynamics:Engine performance improved by optimized piston motion(Otto cycle/optimized heat engines/optimal control)MICHAEL MOZURKEWICH AND R. S. BERRY Department of Chemistry and the James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 Contributed by R. Stephen Berry, December 29, 1980ABSTRACT The methods of finite-time thermodynamics are used to find the optimal time path of an Otto cycle with friction and heat leakage. Optimality is defined by maximization of the work per cycle; the system is constrained to operate at a fixed frequency,so the maximum power-is obtained. The result is an improvement of about 10% in the effectiveness (second-law efficiency) of a conventional near-sinusoidal engine.Finite-time thermodynamics is an extension ofconventional thermodynamics relevant in principle across the entire span of the subject, from the most abstract level to the most applied. The approach is based on the construction of generalized thermodynamic potentials (1) for processes containing time or rate conditions among the constraints on the system (2) and on the determination of optimal paths that yield the extrema corresponding to those generalized potentials.Heretofore, work on finite-time thermodynamics has concentrated on ratheridealized models (2-7) and on existence theorems (2), all on the abstract side of the subject. This work is intended as a step connecting the abstract thermodynamic concepts that have emerged in finite-time thermodynamics with the practical, engineering side of the subject, the design principles of a real machine. In this report, we treat a model of the internal combustion engine closely related to the ideal Otto cycle but with rate constraints in the form ofthe two major losses found in real engines. We optimize the engine by controlling the time dependence of the volume-that is, the piston motion. As a result, without undertaking a detailed engineering study, we are able to understand how the losses are affected by the time path of the piston and to estimate the improvement in efficiency obtainable by optimizing the piston motion.THE MODELOur model is based on the standard four-stroke Otto cycle. This consists of an intake stroke, a compression stroke, a power stroke, and an exhaust stroke. Here we briefly describe the basic features of this model and the method used to find the optimal piston motion. A detailed presentation will be given elsewhere. We assume that the compression ratio, fuel-to-air ratio, fuel consumption, and period of the cycle all are fixed. These constraints serve two purposes. First, they reduce the optimization problem to finding the piston motion. Also,they guarantee that the performance criteria not considered in this analysis are comparable to those for a real engine. Relaxing any of these constraints can only improve the performance further.We take the losses to be heat leakage and friction. Both of these are rate dependent and thus affect the time response of the system. The heat leak is assumed to be proportional to the instantaneous surface of the cylinder and to the temperature difference between the working fluid and the walls (i.e., Newtonian heat loss). Because this temperature difference is large only on the power stroke, heat loss is included only on this stroke. The friction force is taken to be proportional to the piston velocity, corresponding to well-lubricated metal-on-metal sliding;thus, the frictional losses are directly related, to the square ofthe velocity. These losses are not the same for all strokes. The high pressures in the power stroke make its friction coefficient higher than in the other strokes. The intake stroke has a contribution due to viscous flow through the valve.The function we have optimized is the maximum work per cycle. Because both fuel consumption and cycle time are fixed, this also is equivalent to maximizing both efficiency and the average power.In finding the optimal piston motion, we first separated the power and nonpower strokes. An unspecified but fixed time t was allotted to the power stroke with the remainder of the cycle time given to the nonpower strokes. Both portions of the cycle were optimized with this time constraint and were then combined to find the total work per cycle. The duration t of the power stroke was then varied and the process was repeated until the net work was a maximum.The optimal piston motion for the nonpower strokes takes a simple form. Because of the quadratic velocity dependence of the friction losses, the optimum motion holds the velocity constant during most of each stroke. At the ends of the stroke, the piston accelerates and decelerates at the maximum allowed rate. Because the friction losses are higher on the intake stroke, the optimal solution allots more time to this stroke than to the othe