Statistical physics and cycles of operation of heat engines

Products of fuel combustion are the working body in the process of expansion cycles of heat engines. The composition of all combustibles is their common property – all of them are hydrocarbons, i.e., their molecules consist of carbon and hydrogen atoms. The article deals only with the properties of the products of fuel stoichiometric combustion in atmospheric air. The combustion products are a mixture of oxides of constituent elements of CO₂, H₂O and the main element of air – nitrogen N₂. It is the products of combustion that determine the expansion processes in the most widespread operation cycle of power plants – the Brayton cycle. This article is an attempt to use the methods of statistical physics to describe the properties of combustion products