Variations on the Zilch Cycle

Thermo dynamic cycles in introductory physics courses are usually made up from a small number of permutations of isothermal, adiabatic, and constant-pressure and volume quasistatic strokes, with the working fluid usually being an ideal gas. Among them we find the Carnot, Stirling, Otto, Diesel, and Joule-Brayton cycles; in more advanced courses, steam cycles and refrigerators based on real working fluids are often introduced. Any additional cycles made up from the same simple strokes, and any extended analysis of known cycles, are welcome additions to the teaching repertory, as they provide more opportunities for practice and discussion.^1–7 Our purpose in this note is to extend the analysis of the zilch cycle, introduced in Ref. 1, by presenting its TS diagram and by proposing several variations that do not contain adiabatic strokes, thus allowing a simpler mathematical treatment. As a bonus, we also provide results that make it possible to represent practically any elementary ideal-gas cycle in a TS diagram.