Car`not's" cy"cle (?). [After N. L. S. Carnot, French physicist.] (Thermodynamics)
An ideal heat-engine cycle in which the working fluid goes through the following four successive operations:
(1) Isothermal expansion to a desired point;
(2) adiabatic expansion to a desired point;
(3) isothermal compression to such a point that
(4) adiabatic compression brings it back to its initial state.
© Webster 1913