ME 263 ● Spring 2023 ● Lecture 1 Review

Thermodynamics: A study of Energy and its Transformations

Closed Systems
A closed system is defined when a particular quantity of matter is under
study. A closed system always contains the same matter. There can be
no transfer of mass across its boundary. The figure shows a gas in a
piston–cylinder assembly. When the valves are closed, we can consider
the gas to be a closed system. The boundary lies just inside the piston
and cylinder walls, as shown by the dashed
lines on the figure. Since the portion of the
boundary between the gas and the piston
moves with the piston, the system volume
varies. No mass would cross this or any
other part of the boundary. If combustion
occurs, the composition of the system
changes as the initial combustible mixture
becomes products of combustion.
A special type of closed system that does not interact in any way with
its surroundings (no heat transfer, no work done) is called an isolated
system.
Control Volumes
We will perform thermodynamic analyses of devices such as turbines,
compressors and pumps through which mass flows. These analyses can
be conducted in principle by studying a particular quantity of matter as
it passes through the device. In most cases it is simpler to think instead
in terms of a given region of space through which mass flows. With this
approach, a region within a prescribed boundary is studied. The region
is called a control volume. Mass crosses the boundary of a control volume.
A diagram of an engine is shown in Figure (a). The dashed line defines a
control volume that surrounds the engine. Observe that air, fuel, and
exhaust gases cross the boundary. A schematic such as in Figure (b) often
suffices for engineering analysis.

Property, State, Process

To describe a system and predict its behavior requires knowledge of its
properties and how those properties are related. A property is a
macroscopic characteristic of a system such as mass, volume, energy,
pressure, and temperature to which a numerical value can be assigned
at a given time without knowledge of the previous behavior (history) of
the system. The word state refers to the condition of a system as
described by its properties. Since there are normally relations among the
properties of a system, the state often can be specified by providing the
values of a subset of the properties. All other properties can be
determined in terms of these few. When any of the properties of a system
changes, the state changes and the system is said to undergo a process.
A process is a transformation from one state to another.
Thermodynamics also deals with quantities that are not properties, such
as mass flow rates and energy transfers by work and heat.
Extensive and Intensive Properties
Thermodynamic properties can be placed in two general classes: extensive
and intensive. A property is called extensive if its value for an overall
system is the sum of its values for the parts into which the system is
divided. Mass, volume, energy, and several other properties introduced
later are extensive. Extensive properties depend on the size or extent of
a system. Intensive properties are not additive in that sense. Their values
are independent of the size or extent of a system and may vary from
place to place within the system at any moment. Specific volume,
pressure, and temperature are important intensive properties; several
other intensive properties are introduced later.
Modeling Expansion or Compression Work
There are many ways in which work can be done by or on a system. One
way is the work done when the volume of a quantity of a gas (or liquid)
changes by expansion or compression. Let us evaluate the work done by
the closed system shown consisting of a gas (or liquid) contained in a
piston–cylinder assembly as the gas expands. During the process, the gas
pressure exerts a normal force on the piston. Let p denote the pressure
acting at the interface between the gas and the piston.

The force exerted by the gas on the piston is simply the product pA,
where A is the area of the piston face. The work done by the system as
the piston is displaced a distance dx is δW = pAdx. The product Adx
equals the change in volume of the system, dV. Thus, the work expression
can be written as δW = pdV. Since dV is positive when volume increases,
the work at the moving boundary is positive when the gas expands. For
a compression, dV is negative. These signs are in agreement with the sign
convention for work:
For a change in volume from V1 to V2, the work is obtained by
integrating

Example: