The Carnot efficiency limit shows the maximum efficiency of a heat engine as:
\begin{align}\eta & = 1-\frac{T_C}{T_H}\end{align}
I have often heard comments that $ T_H $ is the temperature limit of the materials used in the particular engine one is working with. Although this may be useful for someone designing a particular engine, I'm wondering what $ T_H $ stands for theoretically. As an example, if I am using gasoline or diesel for fuel, would the theoretical value of $ T_H $ correspond to the adiabatic flame temperature for those fuels? Again, I am not concerned at the present time if that temperature melts all the engine parts, I am interested in what theoretical efficiency limits I can achieve with particular fuels and compression ratios.
This leads me to a second question. If I use the adiabatic flame temperature for a particular fuel as my $ T_H $, I would like to use a $ T_H $ based on the adiabatic temperature of that fuel at different compression ratios. Does anyone know of a resource where I can find the adiabatic flame temperatures of, lets say gasoline or diesel, at different compression ratios? I am looking for a table with various temperatures so I don't have to do the math for each theoretical fuel or compression ratio.
Thanks for considering this question :)
