Fundamentals of mechanical engineering
[email protected] MOHAMMED ABASS ALI What is thermodynamics Thermodynamics is the branch of physics that studies the effects of temperature and heat on physical systems at the macroscopic scale. In addition, it also studies the relationship that exists between heat, work and energy. Thermal energy is found in many forms in today’s society including power generation of electricity using gas, coal or nuclear, heating water by gas or electric. THE BASICS OF THERMODYNAMICS Basic concepts Properties are Features of a system which include mass, volume, energy, pressure and temperature. Thermodynamics also considers other quantities that are not physical properties, such as mass flow rates and energy transfers by work and heat. Energy forms Fluids and solids can possess several forms of energy. All fluids possess energy due to their temperature and this is referred to as ‘internal energy’. They will also possess ‘ potential energy’ (PE) due to distance (z) above a datum level and if the fluid is moving at a velocity (v), it will also possess ‘kinetic energy’. If the fluid is pressurised, it will possess ‘flow energy’ (FE). Pressure and temperature are the two governing factors and internal energy can be added to FE to produce a single property called ‘enthalpy’. Internal energy The molecules of a fluid possess both kinetic energy (KE) and PE relative to an internal datum. Generally, this is regarded simply as the energy due to its temperature and the change in internal energy in a fluid that undergoes a temperature change is given by ΔU = mcΔT The total internal energy is denoted by the symbol ‘U’, which has values of J, kJ or MJ; also the specific internal energy ‘u’ has the values of kJ/kg.