Thermodynamics in Energy Engineering

Topics Covered

• Introduction to the first law of thermodynamics: The concept of conservation of energy, closed and open systems
• Mathematical formulation of the first law and examples to demonstrate the use of energy balance equations
• Calculation of energy changes and enthalpy changes involved in chemical reaction
• The meaning of equation of state and demonstration of the usefulness of equation of state for ideal gases in relating the physical variables in various situations
• Introduction to The second law of thermodynamics: why the 2nd law is the entropy principle, what the entropy is and how the entropy is related to the useful energy
• Focus on the traditional interpretation of entropy and the closely related topics
• Exercise showing the relation between total entropy and reversibility
• Focus on solving entropy change problems to illustrate the relation between entropy and reversibility
• Introduction to the third law of thermodynamics: The temperature principle which is essential to solve problems related to the entropy changes
• Definition of free energy derived from the criteria for reversibility and the physical meaning of free energy