NAZARBAYEV UNIVERSITY

School of Engineering
Examination for Internal Students
Academic Session 2011/12
THERMODYNAMICS
Date: Tuesday 13 December 2011 Time: 10.00
Time Allowed 3 hours
Attempt FOUR questions from six
All questions carry 25 marks, you can obtain a maximum of 100 marks in this examination.
The use of calculators approved by the School of Engineering is permitted.
Steam tables and an ammonia table are provided.
DO NOT WRITE ON THIS EXAMINATION QUESTION PAPER. THIS
PAPER WILL BE COLLECTED AFTER THE EXAMINATION HAS
ENDED.
THERMODYNAMICS, Semester 1, 2011/12
1.
(i) With the aid of simple diagrams describe what are meant by a Closed,
Isolated and Open systems in the context of thermodynamics.
(4 marks)
(ii) Define what is meant by a state function and whether heat, work and internal
energy are state functions.
(3 marks)
(iii) Consider the example of a gas confined within a piston and cylinder
arrangement. State any three conditions that must be fulfilled in order for the
gas to produce the most effective conversion of heat into work.
(3 marks)
(iv) Starting with the expressions for internal energy and enthalpy in terms of state
variables, derive the following expressions
V
V
T
S
T C
,
_

(for a constant volume process),

P
P
T
S
T C
,
_

(for a constant pressure process).

(6 marks)
(v) One mole of an ideal gas undergoes an adiabatic expansion from an initial
volume of 1 m
3
to a final volume of 3 m
3
. Calculate the entropy change in both
the reversible and irreversible (free expansion) cases, providing a brief
explanation for each answer.
(9 marks)
1
THERMODYNAMICS, Semester 1, 2011/12
2.
(i) Draw a schematic for a steam power plant operating on the basis of a Carnot
cycle carefully labelling all the important process components. With reference
to the same diagram, draw the corresponding temperature/entropy diagram.
(5 marks)
(ii) A Carnot heat engine receives 500 kJ of heat from a high temperature heat
source at 625
o
C and rejects heat to a low-temperature sink at 30
o
C.
Determine
(a) the thermal efficiency of this Carnot heat engine
(b) the amount of heat rejected to the sink
(6 marks)
(iii) Define what is meant by the Coefficient of Performance for a refrigerator
(2 marks)
(iv) The interior lighting of refrigerators is provided by incandescent lamps whose
switches are actuated by the opening of the refrigerator door. Consider a
refrigerator whose 40 W light bulb remains switched on continuously as a
result of a malfunction of the switch. If the refrigerator has a coefficient of
performance of 1.3 and the cost of electricity is 8 tenge per kWh, determine
the increase in the energy consumption of the refrigerator and its cost per year
(365 days) if the switch is not fixed.
You may assume that the refrigerator is opened 20 times per day for an
average of 30s on each occasion.
(12 marks)
3.
(i) Draw a schematic for a steam power plant operating on the basis of the ideal
Rankine cycle and sketch a curve representing each step on a T-S diagram.
(10 marks)
(ii) Consider a steam power plant operating on the basis of the ideal Rankine
cycle. The steam enters the turbine at 30 bar and 350
o
C and is condensed in
the condenser at a pressure of 0.75 bar. Determine the thermal efficiency of
this cycle.
(15 marks)
2
THERMODYNAMICS, Semester 1, 2011/12
4. Using the first law of thermodynamics for a closed system of constant
composition and the defining equations for Helmholtz free energy and Gibbs free
energy respectively given by
TS U A
TS H G ,
show that

.
V P
S T
T S
P V
S
U
S
H
T
V
U
V
A
P
P
G
P
H
V
T
G
T
A
S

,
_

,
_

,
_

,
_

,
_

,
_

,
_

,
_

(25 marks)
5.
(i) Draw a schematic indicating the main components of a vapour compression
refrigeration cycle, along with the corresponding T-S and P-H diagrams.
Assume the cycle operates on the basis of an ideal vapour compression
refrigeration cycle.
(10 marks)
(ii) An ideal vapour compression refrigeration cycle uses ammonia as the
working fluid operating at a condenser and evaporator pressures of 1.902 bar
and 10.99 bar respectively. If the mass flow rate of the refrigerant is 0.05 kg/s,
determine;
(a) the rate of heat removal from the refrigerant and the power input
into the compressor
(5 marks)
(b) the rate of heat rejection to the environment
(5 marks)
(c) the COP of the refrigerator
(5 marks)
3
THERMODYNAMICS, Semester 1, 2011/12
6.
(i) Write down an expression for the Joule-Thomson coefficient

as a partial
derivative, showing clearly which state variable is held constant.
(3 marks)
(ii) What is the physical significance of this expression?
(2 marks)
(iii) Show that the coefficient is also given by

1
1
]
1

,
_

V
T
V
T
C
p p
1

. (10 marks)
You may use the Maxwell relation,
p T
T
V
P
S

,
_

,
_

.
(iv) Using the above expression, prove that

for an ideal gas is zero. What

does it tell you about suitability of using an ideal gas as a refrigerant in a
refrigeration cycle?
(5 marks)
(v) Calculate

for a certain substance at 25

o
C for which C
p
= 138 kJ/(kmol
K) ,V = 0.09 m
3
/kmol and

,
_

P
T
V
9.0 x 10
-8
m
3
/molK.
(5 marks)
THIS IS THE END OF THE EXAMINATION
4