Thermodynamic Engine Simulator
A piston-cylinder engine running a chosen ideal-gas cycle. The gas molecules and piston track the live temperature and volume, the P-V loop traces with a moving operating point, and an energy-flow diagram splits Q_hot into work and Q_cold with the efficiency. Carnot, Otto, Diesel and Stirling cycles, reversible to a refrigerator.
WHAT TO TRY
- Pick a cycle and watch the P-V loop close: the area it encloses is the net work per cycle, and the energy-flow diagram splits each stroke into heat in, heat out, and work done.
- Compare cycles: Carnot sets the ceiling efficiency 1 - T_c / T_h, while Otto, Diesel and Brayton trade some of that ideal for power density, the compromise in every real engine.
- Follow the operating point around the loop: heat flows in on the hot strokes and out on the cold ones, and only the difference becomes useful work, the second law made visible.