MALAWI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING

Thermodynamics (THDY-210): Tutorial 1

1. A university campus has 200 classrooms and 400 faculty offices. The
classrooms are equipped with 12 fluorescent tubes, each consuming 110
W, including the electricity used by the ballasts. The faculty offices, on
average, have half as many tubes. The campus is open 240 days a year.
The classrooms and faculty offices are not occupied an average of 4 h a
day, but the lights are kept on. Determine the amount of energy that
will be saved if the lights in the classrooms and faculty offices are turned
off during unoccupied periods.
(506,880 kWh)

2. Water is being heated in a closed pan on top of a burner while being

stirred by a paddle wheel. During the process, 30 kJ of heat is
transferred to the water, and 5 kJ of heat is lost to the surrounding air.
The paddle-wheel work amounts to 500 Nm. Determine the final
energy of the system if its initial energy is 10 kJ.

(35.5 kJ)
3. Show how the polytropic exponent n can be evaluated if you know

the end state properties, (𝑃1 , 𝑉1 ) and (𝑃2 𝑉2 ).

4. Air goes through a polytropic process from 125 kPa, 325 K to 300 kPa

and 500 K. Find the polytropic exponent n and the specific work in
the process. The gas constant for air is 0.2870 kJ/kg.K.

(1.969; - 51.8 kJ/kg)

5. A piston cylinder has 1.5 kg of air at 300 K and 150 kPa. It is now

heated up in a two-step process. First at constant volume to 1000 K

(state 2), then followed by a constant pressure process to 1500 K
(state 3). Find the final volume and the work done in the process.

(1.2915 𝒎𝟑 ; 215.3 kJ)

6. A piston cylinder contains nitrogen gas at 600 kPa, 290 K and a

volume of 0.01 𝑚3 . A constant pressure process gives 54 kJ of work
out. Find the final temperature of the gas.
(2900 K)