Thermodynamic cycles and elemental efficiencies

A 'real' Joule's thermodynamic cycle (i.e., a cycle in which interstage losses are taken into account) with m-fold interstage cooling and n-fold interstage heating is analyzed. By letting m and n tend to a limit, an optimum 'hexagonal' cycle is obtained, and is shown to comprize the Carnot, Joule, and Ericsson cycles as particular cases. It is found that in the 'real' case, the hexagonal cycle may be better than the Carnot cycle. The natural application of the hexagonal cycle is to large gas turbines.