Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 21: Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics of Small Systems (contributed talks)

DY 21.1: Talk

Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 11:45–12:00, HÜL 186

Stochastic energetics of the Büttiker-Landauer Brownian Motor and Refrigerator — •Ronald Benjamin — German Aerospace Center, Cologne, Germany

The energetics of a Brownian motor and refrigerator driven by position dependent temperature, known as the Büttiker-Landauer motor and refrigerator, is investigated by extensive numerical simulations of the inertial Langevin equation. We identify parameter values for optimal performance of the motor and refrigerator. Inertial effects strongly affect the thermodynamic behavior of the system even in the overdamped limit. The behavior of the motor and refrigerator, in the linear response regime, is examined under finite time conditions and we find that the efficiency can never reach that of an endoreversible engine working under the same condition. Finally, we investigate the role of different potential and temperature profiles to enhance the efficiency of the system. Our simulations show that optimizing the potential and temperature profile leads only to a marginal enhancement of the system performance and the reasons for this are given.