ENERGY AND FORMS OF

ENERGY
 WHAT IS ENERGY???

• Energy is a fundamental concept, such as

mass or force, and, as is often the case with
such concepts, it is very difficult to define.
• Energy has been defined as the capability
to produce an effect.
• Energy can be stored within a system and
can be transferred (as heat, for example)
from one system to another.
 FORMS OF ENERGY

• Energy can exist in numerous forms such as

thermal, mechanical, kinetic,
• potential, electric, magnetic, chemical, and
nuclear, and their sum constitutes the total
energy E of a system.
• Thermodynamics deals only with the change
of the total energy, which is what matters in
engineering problems.
• In thermodynamic analysis, it is often helpful
to consider the various forms of energy that
make up the total energy of a system in two
groups:

A. macroscopic and
B. microscopic.
 FORMS OF ENERGY CONTINUED

• The macroscopic forms of energy are those a

system possesses as a whole with respect to some
outside reference frame, such as kinetic and
potential energies
• The microscopic forms of energy are those
related to the molecular structure of a system and
the degree of the molecular activity, and they are
independent of outside reference frames.
• The sum of all the microscopic forms of energy
is called the internal energy (U) of a system.
 MACROSCOPIC ENERGY

• The macroscopic energy of a system is related to

motion and the influence of some external
effects such as gravity, magnetism, electricity,
and surface tension.
• The energy that a system possesses as a result of
its motion relative to some reference frame is
called kinetic energy (KE).
• When all parts of a system move with the same
velocity, the kinetic energy is expressed as
𝟏
𝑲𝑬 = 𝒎𝑽𝟐
𝟐𝟐
𝑽
Or, 𝒌𝒆 =
𝟐
 MACROSCOPIC ENERGY

• The energy that a system possesses as a result of

its elevation in a gravitational field is called
potential energy (PE) and is expressed as
𝑷𝑬 = 𝒎𝒈𝒛
Or, 𝒑𝒆 = 𝒈𝒛
• In the absence of such magnetic, electric and
surface tension effects, the total energy of a
system consists of the kinetic, potential, and
internal energies and is expressed as
𝑬 = 𝑼 + 𝑲𝑬 + 𝑷𝑬
Or, 𝒆 = 𝒖 + 𝒌𝒆 + 𝒑𝒆
 MECHANICAL ENERGY

• The mechanical energy can be defined as the

form of energy that can be converted to
mechanical work completely and directly by
an ideal mechanical device such as an ideal
turbine.
• Kinetic and potential energies are the familiar
forms of mechanical energy.
 FLOW WORK

• The pressure of a flowing fluid is also associated with its

mechanical energy. E.g., pump and turbine.
• A pressure force acting on a fluid through a distance
𝑷
produces work, called flow work, in the amount of per
𝝆
unit mass.
• The mechanical energy of a flowing fluid can be expressed
on a unit mass basis as
𝑽𝟐 𝑷
𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒄𝒉 = + 𝒈𝒁 +
𝟐 𝝆
 ENERGY TRANSFER

• Energy can cross the boundary of a closed

system in two distinct. forms: heat and work
 HEAT

• Heat is defined as the form of energy that is

transferred between two systems (or a system
and its surroundings) by virtue of a temperature
Difference.
• That is, an energy interaction is heat only if it
takes place because of a temperature difference.
• Heat is energy in transition. It is recognized only
as it crosses the boundary of a system.