From 1 to N: A computer-aided case study of thermodynamic cycle construction based on thermodynamic process combination

Thermodynamic cycles are essential for utilization of energy in most situations. The development of methods that can be used to construct thermodynamic cycles has therefore been the focus of engineers and scientists for some time. The essence of most traditional construction methods is to improve the classical thermodynamic cycles rather than constructing a new cycle. Few researchers have attempted to construct cycles with thermodynamic processes as basic elements. In this study, the thermodynamic process is considered as the degree of freedom in thermodynamic cycle construction for the first time, and a computer-aided method for constructing thermodynamic cycles is proposed based on this viewpoint. This method constructs a thermodynamic cycle by combining a specific number of thermodynamic processes under the guidance of predefined rules. Case studies show that this method can generate numerous forms of thermodynamic cycles, including existing classical cycles and new cycles. Thirty-eight new cycles that were generated using this method demonstracted efficiencies higher than 0.25, which is 16.67% lower than the efficiency of the Carnot cycle under the same conditions. This shows that this method is an efficient means of constructing thermodynamic cycles. The method also provides a new perspective on the construction of the thermodynamic cycle, facilitating the transition from empirical methods to data-dependent methods for thermodynamic cycle construction.