A unified description of finite time exergoeconomic performance for seven typical irreversible heat-engine cycles

Finite time exergoeconomic performance optimization of a universal irreversible heat-engine cycle model, which consists of two constant thermal-capacity heating branches, two constant thermal-capacity cooling branches and two adiabatic branches, is investigated by taking the profit rate criterion as the optimization objective. The analytical formulae for power, efficiency and profit rate function of the universal irreversible heat-engine cycle model with the losses of heat transfer, heat leakage and internal irreversibility are derived. The focus of this article is to search the compromised optimization between economics (profit rate) and the energy utilization factor (efficiency) for irreversible cycles. Moreover, analysis and optimization of the model are carried out in order to investigate the effects of these losses and cycle process on the performance of the universal irreversible heat-engine cycle model using numerical examples. The results obtained herein include the performance characteristics of seven typical irreversible heat engines, including Carnot, Diesel, Otto, Atkinson, Brayton, Dual and Miller cycles.