ME 267: Fundamentals of

Mechanical Engineering
Thermodynamics: Basics

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Date: 2012.10.07 14:45:54 +06'00'
 Prologue PARIS FRANCE, 10:35 AM, AUGUST 24, 1832

The nurse closed the door quietly behind her

as she left his hospital room. She knew her
patient was very sick, because for the past
two days, he had been irritable and lethargic
and now he was complaining of a fever and
muscle cramps. His eyes looked sunken and
he was constantly thirsty; yesterday, he
vomited for hours. Sadi Carnot was only 36
years old, but that day he would die of
cholera.
Because Sadi Carnot died of infectious
cholera, all his clothes and writings were
buried with him.
Who knows what thermodynamic secrets
still lie hidden in his grave!!!

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Definition Thermodynamics

The word thermodynamics comes from the Greek words θερμη (therme,
meaning “heat”) and δυναμις (dynamis, meaning “power”). Thermodynamics
is the study of the various processes that change energy from one form into
another (such as converting heat into work) and uses variables such as
temperature, volume, and pressure

Text Books ???

>> Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach
by Yunus A. Cengel and Michael A. Boles Why are we running out
>> Modern Engineering Thermodynamics by of energy although
Robert T Balmer energy cannot be
destroyed???

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Applications Thermodynamics

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Definition System, Boundary and Surrounding

•A thermodynamic system is simply any object, quantity of

matter, or region of space that has been selected for study.
Everything that is not part of the system is referred to as the
surroundings

•The mass or region outside the system is called the

surroundings. The real or imaginary surface that separates
the system from its surroundings is called the boundary

•The boundary may be real or imaginary, at rest or in

motion may change its shape and size neither contains
matter nor occupies volume has zero thickness and a
property value at a point on the boundary is shared by both
the system and the surroundings.

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Systems Closed, Open, Isolated

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Closed System Control Mass

A closed system (also known as a control mass) consists of a fixed amount of

mass, and no mass can cross its boundary, but energy, in the form of heat or
work, can cross the boundary; and the volume of a closed system does not
have to be fixed

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Open System Control Volume

An open system, or a control volume, as it is

often called, is a properly selected region in ???
space. It usually encloses a device that involves
mass flow such as a compressor, turbine, or Human body, open or
nozzle closed system??

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Thermodynamics Classical or Statistical??
• Thermodynamic systems can be studied from two points of view:
1. Microscopic approach or statistical thermodynamics
2. Macroscopic approach or classical thermodynamics

•The microscopic approach recognizes that the system consists of matter

that is composed of countless, discrete molecules. Statistics and
probability theory are applied to deduce the macroscopic behavior or
measurable quantities e.g. pressure, temperature etc.

•In the macroscopic approach, the state of the system is described by a

relatively small set of characteristics that are called properties e.g. mass,
temperature, pressure and volume.

•Macroscopic approach works well when the system is sufficiently large

such that it contains many molecules. However, the macroscopic approach
would not work well for a system that consists of a rarefied gas (i.e., a
vacuum with just a few molecules).

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Continuum The Basis of Classical Thermodynamics

•Allows us to treat properties as point functions and to assume the

properties vary continually in space with no jump discontinuities
•The continuum model is applicable as long as the characteristic
length of the system (such as its diameter) is much larger than the
mean free path of the molecules
•At very high vacuums or very high elevations, the mean free path may
become large (for example, it is about 0.1 m for atmospheric air at an
elevation of 100 km). For such cases the rarefied gas flow theory
should be used, and the impact of individual molecules should be
considered

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Properties of a System

•An intensive property is any

thermodynamic property of a homogenous
system that is independent of mass.
Examples are the pressure, temperature,
and density

•An extensive property is any

thermodynamic property of a homogenous
system that depends on mass. Examples
are the mass, volume, and energy

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Thermodynamic State and Equilibrium

•The state of a system is described by its properties

•Specifying a certain number of properties is sufficient to
fix a state
•In an equilibrium state there are no unbalanced potentials
(or driving forces) within the system
•A system in equilibrium experiences no changes when it is
isolated from its surroundings
•Thermodynamic properties are defined at this equilibrium
states
•A system in thermodynamic equilibrium satisfies the
following requirements:
1. Thermal Equilibrium
2. Mechanical Equilibrium
3. Phase Equilibrium
4. Chemical Equilibrium

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Thermodynamic Process and Cycle

•A thermodynamic process is the succession of thermodynamic

states that a system passes through as it goes from an initial state to
a final state

•A system process is said to go through a thermodynamic cycle

when the final state of the process is the same as the initial state of
the process

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Properties at path of the process!!

Situations exist where intrinsic(dependent on system media) property

values must be known at every instant during a process, in order to evaluate
certain thermodynamic quantities. This necessitates that the system be nearly in
equilibrium at all times, since properties are definable only in equilibrium states.
To allow a process to proceed yet retain the concept of equilibrium, an
idealization is made where the unbalanced force across the boundary is made
differential in size. This results a process where the system internally is
infinitesimally close to a state of equilibrium at all times. This idealized process is
called a quasi-static(quasi-equilibrium)process.
A quasi-equilibrium process can be viewed as a sufficiently slow process
that allows the system to adjust itself internally so that properties in one part of
the system do not change any faster than those at other parts

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Properties at path of the process!!

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Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Conservation Mass

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Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Zeroth Law The last thermodynamic law to be developed!!

Consider three thermodynamic systems, A, B, and C. If

system A is in thermal equilibrium with (i.e., is the same
temperature as) system C and system B is in thermal equilibrium
with system C, then system A is in thermal equilibrium with system
B

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Pressure Absolute, Gage, Vacuum

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET
 Thermodynamics ???

???

ME 267
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET