Question

What is the condition for maximum work done by the system?

Answer 1

Hint: Work thermodynamically is determined by the transfer of energy from the system to the surroundings. The maximum work is the complete transfer of energy from the system to the surroundings. This means that the system should have the conditions that would make it conducive for the transfer of energy from the system to the surroundings.

Complete step by step answer:
Thermodynamically we can define work as the change in the energy content of the system with change in any of the conditions in which the system is present at the moment. That is work can be defined as the transferring of energy from one system to another or one system to the surroundings. This can be done by conserving it or dissipating it.
The conditions for a system to be able to completely obtain all the work possible is given below:

A.The first condition is in reference to the change in energy thermodynamically. It is important that the change in the energy of a system should occur reversibly because only then can the maximum work be done.

B.The next condition is that the change in the system should take place in an infinite number of steps. This is so that the process takes a very long time to occur thus reducing the amount of heat that can be lost.

C.There should be a very close equilibrium with the forward reaction or forward process and the backward process. This helps to maintain thermodynamic equilibrium.

D.The system should also be in mechanical equilibrium with its surroundings. This means that the system and the surrounding should be equilibrium so that no energy will escape out.

Note: The process where the maximum amount of work can be obtained is the reversible process. This is because in the reversible process the energy loss from the system is minimised and hence a lot more work can be obtained. The other importance of a reversible process is that the energy is conserved because there is equilibrium between the system and surrounding.