An optimal endoreversible three-heat-source refrigerator

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Abstract
An endoreversible three‐heat‐source refrigerator only affected by thermal resistance, like a reversible three‐heat‐source refrigerator, may be treated as a combined cycle of a two‐heat‐source engine driving a two‐heat‐source refrigerator. The theory of finite time thermodynamics in two‐heat‐source cycles is then used to analyze it and derive its basic optimum relation. Thus, the fundamental effect of thermal resistance on the optimal performance of a three‐heat‐source refrigerator is expounded. The conclusions obtained here are more realistic than those of classical thermodynamics. They provide some new theoretical bases for further exploitation of the three‐heat‐source refrigeration apparatus that applies to ‘‘cheap’’ heat sources, such as solar energy, geothermal energy, waste heat, and so on.

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