THERMODYNAMICS

MECH.2420

Week 1
 THERMODYNAMICS

►Engineering use of 2 universal laws:

1st Energy (quantity) is conserved:

Useful + Not Useful = constant

Work + Heat = Energy change

2nd The quality of Energy always decreases:

Disorder = Low quality
Production of Entropy > 0
https://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-guide-to-the-energy-of-the-earth-joshua-m
-sneideman
 FOOD FOR THOUGHT: MASS & ENERGY

►Mass & Energy are fundamental concepts, BUT

what are they?
►Noether’s Theorem helps us define them:
“If a system has a continuous symmetry
property, then there are corresponding quantities
whose values are conserved”

The fact that the results of an Implies:

experiment do not depend on:
• Location in space • Conservation of Mass
• Instant of time • Conservation of Energy
 AGENDA – WEEK 1

►Syllabus
►Lectures: Introduction, Concepts, and
Definitions
►In-class Problems
►Summary
Syllabus
 COURSE OBJECTIVES

• Understand the concepts of heat, work, and energy

• Properties of various substances from tables, graphs,
and equations of state
• Apply the 1st Law of Thermodynamics to calculate
heat, work, and energy transformations
• Understand and use the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
and the concept of entropy
• Comprehend the concept of efficiency
• Understand the nature and role of energy in our lives
and be able to apply energy literacy in engineering
decision making
 TEXT & MATERIALS
► All course materials will be posted to Blackboard
► Textbook:
► Cengel, Y.A., Boles, M.A., Thermodynamics: An Engineering
Approach, 10th Edition, McGraw Hill Education, 2024
► An electronic text is included with the McGraw-Hill Connect
purchase. A paper text (McGraw Hill’s 7 th, 8th or 9th Edition) is
highly recommended but not required

Lectures will be recorded via Echo360

and will be available at the course’s
Blackboard page
 TEXT & MATERIALS (cont.)

►McGraw Hill Connect:

►Assignment and assessment platform; access to:
• An electronic text book
• LearnSmart, an adaptive learning tool
• Online homework
►Registration link through Blackboard
►You must be registered to complete the homework

►Thermodynamic Properties Booklet:

►Required reference on exams
►Printed booklets will be distributed to you
 GRADING

►Grading:
►Four examinations (12% each) 48% of total grade
►Homework (10, ~ 1 per week) 20%
►Final examination 32%

►Exams: (tentative)
►Exam 1: Week 4 - Wednesday, September 25
►Exam 2: Week 7 - Wednesday, October 16
►Exam 3: Week 11 - Wednesday, November 6
►Exam 4: Week 14 Wednesday, November 21
 HOMEWORK
► 10 homework sets
► Three components (all via Blackboard):
►Connect Homework (10%): due 11:00 pm on Friday. Three
attempts are permitted for online homework
►Gradescope Homework (8%): show your work homework, due
11:00 pm on Friday in accordance with the course calendar –
submitted/graded via Gradescope
►LearnSmart Homework (2%): due 11:00 pm on Sunday in
accordance with the course calendar
► Late homework will NOT be accepted unless prior coordination
has been made due to extenuating circumstances
► Homework collaboration is encouraged – yet if plagiarism is
detected (from a classmate or online content), it will be penalized
according to university policies
LECTURE CONTENTS (TENTATIVE)
 AGENDA – WEEK 1

►Syllabus
►Lectures: Introduction, Concepts, and
Definitions
►In-class Problems
►Summary
 OBJECTIVES

• Identify the unique vocabulary associated with

thermodynamics - precise definition of basic concepts
• Review the metric SI and the English unit systems
• Explain the basic concepts of thermodynamics such
as system, state, state postulate, equilibrium,
process, and cycle

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 THERMODYNAMICS AND ENERGY
• Thermodynamics: The science of energy

• Energy: The ability to cause changes

• Greek: therme (heat) and dynamis
(power)

• Conservation of energy principle:

energy can change form but the total
amount of energy remains constant
 Energy cannot be created or destroyed

• The first law of

Thermodynamics: An expression of the
conservation of energy principle - asserts
that energy is a thermodynamic property

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 THERMODYNAMICS AND ENERGY
• The second law of thermodynamics: Energy has quality and quantity
• Actual processes occur in the direction of decreasing quality of energy

1st law 2nd law

• Classical Thermodynamics: Macroscopic approach that does

not require a knowledge of the behavior of individual particles
• Direct way to solve engineering problems

• Statistical Thermodynamics: Microscopic approach, based on

the average behavior of large groups of particles
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APPLICATION AREAS OF THERMODYNAMICS

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All activities in nature involve some interaction between energy and matter
 almost all relate to Thermodynamics in some manner
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 DIMENSIONS AND UNITS
• Any physical quantity can be characterized by dimensions
• The magnitudes assigned to the dimensions are called units

• Some basic dimensions such as mass m, length L, time t, and

temperature T are selected as primary or fundamental dimensions,
while others (e.g., velocity V, energy E, and volume V) are expressed
in terms of the primary dimensions and are called secondary or
derived dimensions

• Metric SI system: A simple and logical system based on a decimal

relationship between the various units

• English system: No apparent systematic numerical base, and

various units are related to each other rather arbitrarily

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FUNDAMENTAL AND DERIVED UNITS
Fundamental Derived

Work = Force  Distance

1 J = 1 N∙m
1 cal = 4.1868 J
1 Btu = 1.0551 kJ
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UNIT PREFIXES

Examples:
• Kilogram (kg): 103 grams
• Nanotechnology: dimensions ~ 10-9 m
• Megabyte (Mb): 106 bytes (1 byte = 8 bits)

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 WEIGHT

W weight
m mass
g gravitational
acceleration

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 RELATIVE MAGNITUDES OF SOME UNITS
Force Energy

Newton (N) vs. kilogram-force (kgf) The burning of 1 match yields

vs. pound-force (lbf) ~ 1 Btu (or 1 kJ)
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 DIMENSIONAL HOMOGENEITY

• All equations must be

dimensionally homogeneous:
every term in an equation must
have the same units

• Unit conversion is best performed

using conversion ratios

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 DIMENSIONAL HOMOGENEITY & UNIT CONVERSION

All secondary units can be formed by combinations of primary units. E.g. Force

They can also be expressed more conveniently as unity conversion ratios as

Unity conversion ratios are equal to 1

and unitless, and thus can be inserted
conveniently into any calculation to
properly convert units

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DIMENSIONAL HOMOGENEITY & UNIT CONVERSION

The weight of one pound mass (1 lbm)

= one pound force (1 lbf)

What is the weight of 453.6 grams of mass?

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 IN-CLASS DEMO QUESTIONS
1) A person whose mass is 150 lbm weighs 144.4 lbf. Determine (a)
the local acceleration of gravity, in ft/s 2, and (b) the person’s mass,
in lbm and weight, in lbf, if g = 32.174 ft/s2

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 IN-CLASS DEMO QUESTIONS
2) A 6.0 kW hot tub heats water at the ski resort for 15 hours per day
to keep the water at 103 oF. Determine the amount of electric
energy used in both kWh and kJ. If electrify costs $0.20 per kWh,
what is the cost [$] of heating the hot tub for 30 days?

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 SYSTEMS
• System: A quantity of matter or a region in space chosen for study
• Surroundings: The region outside the system
• Boundary: The real or imaginary surface that separates the
system from its surroundings

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 CLOSED AND OPEN SYSTEMS
• The boundary of a system can be fixed or movable
• Systems may be considered to be closed or open

• Closed system (control mass): A fixed amount of mass, and

no mass can cross its boundary

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• Open system (control volume): A properly selected
region in space
• Usually encloses a device that involves mass flow
such as a compressor, turbine, or nozzle
• Both mass and energy can cross its boundary

• Control surface: The boundaries of a control volume

- real or imaginary

A control volume can involve fixed, moving, real, and

imaginary boundaries

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 PROPERTIES OF A SYSTEM

• Property: Any characteristic of a system

E.g., pressure P, temperature T, volume V,
mass m

• Properties are either intensive or extensive

• Intensive properties: Independent of the

mass of a system, e.g. T, P, density r

• Extensive properties: Values depend on

the size - or extent - of the system

• Specific properties: Extensive properties

per unit mass, e.g.,

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 CONTINUUM
• Matter in gas phase is made up of atoms that are widely spaced.
Yet it is very convenient (and reasonable) to treat it as continuum
- homogeneous matter (no holes)

approx. distance until collision:

~ 200x size of molecule

• This allows treating properties as point functions and to assume the

properties vary continually in space
• We will only deal with systems which can be modeled as continuum
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 STATE AND EQUILIBRIUM
• Thermodynamics deals with equilibrium states
• Equilibrium: A state of balance
No unbalanced potentials (or driving forces)
within the system, hence no changes

• Thermal equilibrium: Same temperature

throughout the system
• Mechanical equilibrium: Same pressure
Two different states
throughout the system
• Chemical equilibrium: chemical composition
does not change with time (no chemical
reactions occur)
• Phase equilibrium: when two or more phases
are present and the mass of each phase stays
System approaching equilibrium
constant Example?
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 THE STATE POSTULATE
• The number of properties required to fix the state of a system is
given by the state postulate:

“The state of a simple compressible system is completely

specified by two independent intensive properties.”

• Simple compressible system: If a system involves no electrical,

magnetic, gravitational, motion, reactions, surface tension effects

Example: The state of nitrogen in the

container is fixed by two independent,
intensive properties (T and v)

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 PROCESSES AND CYCLES
Process: Any change of a system from one equilibrium state to another
Process path: Series of states through which a system passes during a process

To describe a process, one should specify the initial and final states, as well as
the path it follows, and the interactions with the surroundings

Quasistatic or quasi-equilibrium process: The system remains infinitesimally

close to an equilibrium state at all times

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 PROCESS DIAGRAMS AND PROCESS TYPES
• Process diagrams plotted by
employing thermodynamic properties
(T, P, V, etc.) as coordinates used to
visualize a processes

• iso- = constant
• Isothermal process: temperature T
remains constant
• Isobaric process: pressure P
remains constant
• Isochoric (or isometric) process:
specific volume v remains constant

• Cycle: A process during which the

initial and final states are identical

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 THE STEADY-FLOW PROCESS
• Steady = no change with time
• opposite: unsteady, or transient

• Devices that operate for long periods of

time under the same conditions are
steady-flow devices

• Steady-flow process: When a fluid flows

through a control volume steadily

• Steady-flow conditions found in devices

that are intended for continuous operation,
e.g. turbines, pumps, boilers, condensers,
and heat exchangers or power plants or Properties may change with
refrigeration systems position but not with time

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 TEMPERATURE AND THE ZEROTH LAW OF
THERMODYNAMICS
• The zeroth law of thermodynamics: If two bodies are in thermal
equilibrium with a third body, they are also in thermal equilibrium
with each other

• By replacing the third body with a thermometer, the zeroth law can
be restated as two bodies are in thermal equilibrium if both have
the same temperature reading even if they are not in contact

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 TEMPERATURE SCALES

• All temperature scales are based on some reference states such as

the freezing and boiling points of water: ice point and steam point
• Ice point: Mixture of ice and water in equilibrium with air saturated
with vapor at 1 atm pressure (0 oC or 32 oF)
• Steam point: Mixture of liquid water and water vapor (with no air) in
equilibrium at 1 atm pressure (100 oC or 212 oF)
• Celsius scale: in SI unit system
• Fahrenheit scale: in English unit system
• Thermodynamic temperature scale: A temperature scale that is
independent of the properties of any substance (defines absolute 0)
• Kelvin scale (SI) Rankine scale (E)

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 TEMPERATURE SCALES
Conversion formulas Comparison of temperature scales

Comparison of magnitudes of
various temperature units

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 IDEAL-GAS TEMPERATURE SCALE
• A temperature scale nearly identical to the Kelvin scale is the ideal-
gas temperature scale. The temperatures on this scale are
measured using a constant-volume gas thermometer

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