SEE8130: Advanced

Thermosciences for Energy Quiz: Week 8, 7th March 2023

Engineering Time: 1.5 Hour

In-class mode
Week 6: The Second Law of Thermodynamics
(Coverage: Week 1 – Week 6)

Yun Hau Ng

School of Energy and Environment, Breakdown:

City University of Hong Kong 5 assignments: 5 x 10% = 50%
yunhau.ng@cityu.edu.hk 1 Quiz: 1 x 20% = 20%
Final Exam = 30%

Review: Review:

1. They receive heat from a high-temperature source (solar energy, oil,

furnace, nuclear reactor, etc).
2. They convert part of this heat to work (usually in the form of a rotating
shaft)
• Heat transfer from industrial
3. They reject the remaining waste heat to a low-temperature sink (the
sources to the environment is atmosphere, rivers, etc)
a major concern to 4. They operate on a cycle.
environmentalists and
engineers
• Usually involve a fluid to and from which heat is
• Irresponsible management of transferred.
waste energy can significantly
increase the temperature of • This fluid is called the working fluid.
portions of the environment,
called thermal pollution. • Cyclic device: all system properties periodically return
to its initial state

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Example: Steam power plant

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 &

• Any device that violates the Kelvin-Plank Statement also violates the Clausius
statement, and vice versa

Review:

• Reversible processes actually do not occur in nature (they are merely idealizations
Reversible Process: of actual process).
• A process that can be reversed without leaving any trace on the surroundings • Can be approximated but can never be achieved.
• Net heat and net work exchange between the system and the surroundings is zero Why are we learning reversible process?
for the combined process. 1) Easier to analyse, since a system passes through a series of equilibrium states
during a reversible process.
Irreversible Process:
2) They serve as idealized models to which actual processes can be compared.
Processes that are not reversible.
Engineers are interested because
• Work-producing devices (car engines/ steam turbine) deliver the most work;
• Work-consuming devices (compressors, fans, pumps) consume the least work

Quasi-static/ Quasi-Equilibrium process

• A process proceeds infinitely slow so that the system remains infinitesimally close
to an equilibrium state at all times

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 Irreversible Process:
Processes that are not reversible.

• When two bodies in contact are forced to move relative to each other (e.g. piston in a cylinder)
• A friction force that opposes the motion develops at the interface
• The energy supplied as work is eventually converted to heat and is transferred to the bodies in contact

• A gas separated from a vacuum by a membrane

• When membrane is ruptured, the gas fills the entire tank.
• The only way to restore to its original state is to compress it to its initial volume (conversion of heat
completely to work, violation of second law)

• At TH, gas is allowed to expand slowly, doing work on the surroundings. • Piston is pushed inward by an external force, doing work on the gas.
• As the gas expands, the temperature of the gas tends to decrease, but some heat is • As the gas is compressed, its temperature tends to rise, but some heat is transferred from
transferred from heat source to keep TH constant. the gas to the sink to keep TL constant.

• Insulation is put back.

• The gas is compressed in a reversible manner, the temperature rises from TL to TH.
• The gas continues to expand slowly, doing work on the surroundings
• Temperature drops (as insulation is introduced)

1. The efficiency of an irreversible heat engine is always less than the efficiency of a reversible
one operating between the same two reservoirs.
2. The efficiencies of all reversible heat engines operating between the same two reservoirs are
the same.

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 Analysis of a Carnot Heat Engine
A Carnot heat engine receives 500 kJ of heat per cycle from a high-temperature source at
652 °C and rejects heat to a low-temperature sink at 30 °C. Determine
• The thermal efficiency of actual heat engines
(a) The thermal efficiency of this Carnot engine can be maximized by supplying heat to the
(b) The amount of heat rejected to the sink per cycle. engine at the highest possible temperature
(limited by material strength) and rejecting
heat from the engine at the lowest possible
temperature (limited by the temperature of
(a)
the cooling medium such as rivers, lakes, or
the atmosphere.

(b)

(talk about solar ponds, 350K)

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 • Consider a tank of air initially at 300 K which is heated up to 330 K by heat transfer
• Then a shaft and blade system is used to further raise the temperature of the air from
330 K to 360 K.
• Friction between the blades and air molecules heats up the air
• Friction also makes the process irreversible
• What is the entropy change during this whole process?

• The entropy increased in the air is larger than the entropy transfer to it

• Entropy is viewed as a measure of the disorder in the universe

A heat source at 800 K loses 2000 kJ of heat to a sink at (a) 500 K and (b) 750 K. Determine
which heat transfer process is more irreversible?
1. A process must proceed in the direction that complies with the increase of entropy
principle

2. Entropy is a nonconserved property, and there is no such thing as the conservation of

entropy principle.

3. The performance of engineering systems is degraded by the presence of

irreversibilities, and entropy generation is a measure of the magnitudes of the
irreversibilities present during that process.

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 h = hf(1-x) + xhg
= hf - xhf + xhg
= hf + x(hg - hf)
= hf + x(hfg)

A rigid tank contains 5 kg of refrigerant134a initially at 20°C and 140 kPa.

The refrigerant is now cooled while being stirred until its pressure drops to 100 kPa.
Determine the entropy change of the refrigerant during this process.

Fraction of gas

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