A generalized model of an irreversible thermal Brownian refrigerator and its performance

A generalized model of an irreversible thermal Brownian refrigerator, which consists of Brownian particles moving in a periodic sawtooth potential with external forces and contacting with the alternating hot and cold reservoirs along the space coordinate, is established in this paper. The heat flows driven by both potential and kinetic energies of the particles as well as the heat leakage between the hot and cold reservoirs are taken into account. The optimum performance of the generalized model is analyzed using the theory and method of finite time thermodynamics. The analytical expressions for cooling load, coefficient of performance (COP) and power input of the Brownian refrigerator are derived. It is shown by numerical examples that due to the heat leakage between the heat reservoirs and heat flow via the change of kinetic energy of the particles, the Brownian refrigerator is always irreversible and the COP can never attain the Carnot COP. The influences of the heat leakage, the external force, barrier height of the potential, asymmetry of the sawtooth potential and temperature ratio of the heat reservoirs on the performance of the Brownian refrigerator are also investigated in detail. The effective regions of external force and barrier height of the potential in which the Brownian motor can operate as a refrigerator are determined. It is found that the performance of the Brownian refrigerator depends strictly on the design parameters. If these design parameters are properly chosen, the Brownian refrigerator can be controlled to operate in the optimal regimes. The results obtained herein about the general Brownian refrigerator model include those obtained in many previous literatures. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.