Second law of Thermodynamics

Second law of Thermodynamics

There are two classical statements of the second law of thermodynamics

1) Kelvin – Planck statement

2) Clausius statement

Kelvin – Planck statement

“It is impossible to construct a device which will operate in a cycle & produce no effect other than the raising of a weight and the exchange of heat with a single reservoir”

i.e., it is impossible to construct an engine which will operate in a cycle will produce no effect other than the transfer of heat from a single thermal reservoir and the performance of an equivalent amount of work”.

No actual or ideal engine operating in cycles can convert into work all the heat supplied to the working substance, it must discharge some heat into a naturally accessible sink because of this aspect and the second law is often referred as the law of degradation of energy.

The statement implies that it is impossible to construct a heat engine that working in a cyclic process can absorb an amount of heat from a high temperature reservoir and can do an equivalent amount of work.  In other words it is not possible to construct a heat engine having thermal efficiency of 100 percent.

Clausius Statement 

It is impossible to construct a heat pump which operating in a cycle will produce no effect other than the transfer of heat from a low temperature thermal reservoir to a higher temperature thermal reservoir.

That is in order to transfer heat from a low temperature thermal reservoir to a high temperature thermal reservoir work must be done on the system by the surroundings.

Although the Kelvin – Planck and Clausius statements appear to be different, they are really equivalent in the sense that a violation of one statement involves violation of the other.

Although the Kelvin – Planck and Clausius statements appear to be different, they are really equivalent in the sense that a violation of one statement involves violation of the other.