1.

Basic Concepts of
Thermodynamics
Thermodynamics|ENG208
Dr. Nawaf Aljuwayhel

Textbook
Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach
7th Edition, Cengel & Boles

Part 1

1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-1 Thermodynamics and Energy

Thermo dynamics
Heat (Q) Power W
-

Conversion of heat into power

The science of energy
The study of energy and its transformation

Conservation of Energy Principle: During an

interaction, energy can change from one form to
another but the total amount of energy remains
constant (conserved). Energy cannot be created
or destroyed.
Example 1: A rock falling off a cliff picks up speed
as a result of its potential energy being converted
to kinetic energy (Figure 1).

Figure 1.1: Energy is conserved

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-1 Thermodynamics and Energy

The change in the energy content

(E) of a body or any system is
equal to the difference between the
input energy (Ein) and the output
energy (Eout).

E = Ein - Eout

Example 2: Human body (Figure 2)

Food + No exercise Weight gain
Figure 1.2: Conservation of
energy principle for human
body

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-1 Thermodynamics and Energy

1st Law of Thermodynamics: During an

interaction, energy can change from one form to another
but the total amount of energy remains constant
Conservation of Energy Principle

2nd Law of Thermodynamics: Energy has quality

as well as quantity, and actual processes occur in the
direction of decreasing quality of energy.
Ex. 3 A cup of hot Coffee (Figure 3); the
hot coffee will cool down but a cold
coffee will not heat up by it self
Figure 1.3: Heat flows in the direction
of decreasing temperature

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-1 Thermodynamics and Energy

A substance consists of a large number of particles called

molecules and its properties depend on the behavior of
these molecules.
Ex. 4 The pressure of a gas in a
container is a result of momentum
transfer between the molecules
and the walls of the container).

Figure 4: Gas molecules

http://wps.prenhall.com
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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-1 Thermodynamics and Energy

Application Areas of Thermodynamics

Figure 1.5: Some application areas of thermodynamics

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-2 Importance of Dimensions and Units

A physical quantity can be characterized by dimensions.

The magnitude assigned to the dimensions are called units.
Dimensions

Fundamental or primary dimensions

Ex. mass m, length L, time t, and
temperature T

Secondary or derived dimensions

Ex. velocity V, energy E, and
volume V

Units
English (or USCS)
units
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SI (or international)
units
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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-2 Importance of Dimensions and Units

Example of some primary dimensions in SI and English units and the
conversion factors

Dimension

SI units

English Units

Conversion factors

Mass

kilogram (kg)

pound mass (lbm)

1 lbm = 0.454 kg

Length

meter (m)

foot (ft)

1 ft = 0.3048 m

Time

second (s)

second (s)

----

Temperature

Celsius (C)
kelvin (K)

Fahrenheit (F)
rankine (R)

T(F) = 1.8 T(C) + 32

T(R) = 1.8 T(K)

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-2 Importance of Dimensions and Units

Force (F): is a secondary dimension and defined by Newtons

second law as the force required to accelerate a mass of 1 kg at a
rate of 1 m/s2:

F = (mass) (acceleration) = ma

(1-1)

1 Newton (N) = 1 kg m/s2

1 lbf = 32.174 lbm ft/s2

Weight (W): is a gravitational force applied to a body and give as:

W = mg
(N)
(1-2)

g is the local gravitational acceleration (9.807 m/s2 or 32.174 fl/s2 at sea

level).
The mass of a body remains the same regardless its location.
The weight of a body changes with the magnitude of g.
On the top of a mountain or the surface of the moon, a body will weigh
less what it normally weighs on earth at sea level.

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-2 Importance of Dimensions and Units

Specific weight (w or ): is the weight of a unit volume

of a substance and determined from:

= w = g

(N/m3)

(1-3)

where is the density

Work (W): is a form of energy and can be defined as

force times distance and has the unit newton-meter
(N m) which is called a joule (J) or Btu (British thermal
unit).

Power (): is the work done per unit time. It has a unit
of kJ/s or kW.

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-2 Importance of Dimensions and Units

Example of some secondary dimensions in SI and English units and the
conversion factors

Dimension

SI units

English Units

Conversion factors

Force

Newton (N)

pound force (lbf)

1 lbf = 4.45 N

Work

Joule (J)

British Thermal Units

(Btu)

1 Btu = 1055.06 J

Power

Watt (W)

Btu/h

3.41214 Btu/h = 1W

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-2 Importance of Dimensions and Units

Dimensional Homogeneity
In engineering, every term in an equation must have the
same unit dimensionally homogeneous.
Example 5: E = 25 kJ + 7 kJ/kg
Analysis
1. Two different units.
2. E is the total energy and must have the unit of kJ.
3. Last term has a unit of energy per unit mass multiply by m.

- Units can be used to check formulas; they can even be

used to derive formulas.
OIL
Example 6: A Tank with a volume of 2 m3 and filled with
oil of = 850 kg/m3, determine the mass inside the tank.
Analysis (Figure 6)
m = V = (850 kg/m3) (2m3) = 1700 kg
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V= 2 m3
= 850 kg/m3
m= ?
Figure 1.6
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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-3 Systems and Control Volumes

Thermodynamic system: is defined as a quantity of matter or a region

in space chosen for study
Surroundings: The mass and region outside the system .
Boundary: A real or imaginary surface that separate the system from
the surroundings and shared by both of them. The boundary can be
fixed of movable.

Figure 1.7: System, surroundings

and boundary
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Figure 1.8: A boundary maybe real, imaginary,

fixed or movable.
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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-3 Systems and Control Volumes

System Types
Closed System or Control Mass
Mass can not cross the boundary
(m = constant).
Energy may cross the boundary in
form of work or heat. If as a special
case, even energy is not allowed to
cross the boudary isolated systems.

Open System or Control Volume

Both energy and mass may cross
the systems
boundary, i.e. the
control surface

Figure 1.10: Open system

Figure 1.9: Closed system
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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-3 Systems and Control Volumes

Exercise 1: In the figures below, specify the systems type
(i.e. open or close system).

Figure 1.11a: A nozzle.

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Figure 1.11b: A
piston cylinder
device with one
inlet.
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Figure 1.11c

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-4 Properties of a System

A system is to characterized by a property
Independent properties
Ex. Mass m, pressure P,
volume V, temperature T

Dependent properties
(Properties that are defined in
term of other properties)
Ex. Density

Density: mass per unit volume

m
=
(kg/m3)
V

(1-4)

Incompressible substances
(solids and liquids):

= ( T )

(1-5a)

Compressible substances
(gases):

= (T , P)

(1-5b)

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-4 Properties of a System

Properties
Intensive properties those
that are independent of the
size of a system (T, P, ,)

Extensive properties those

whose values depend on the
size of the system (m, V, E,
U)

Extensive properties per unit mass are called specific

properties. Examples are specific volume v and specific
total energy e
V
E
=
v =
; e
;....
m
m

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-4 Properties of a System

How to determine whether a property is

intensive or extensive?

Figure 1.12: Criteria to differentiate intensive and extensive properties

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-5 Density and Specific Gravity

Specific Gravity or Relative Density (s ): The ratio of the

density of a substance to the density of some standard
substance at a specified temperature (usually water at 4C, water
= 1000 kg/m3).

s = / water

(dimensionless)
(1-6)
Ex. Water: s = 1.0
Ice: s = 0.92
Sea water: s = 1.025
If s < 1 the substance is lighter than water and thus will
float on water.

Specific volume: volume per unit mass and it is the reciprocal

of the density. V
1
v= =
(1-7)
(m3/kg)

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-6 State and Equilibrium

State: When a system is not undergoing any change, then

all of its properties can be measured or calculated
throughout the entire system. Thus, the condition of the
system or the state, can be described completely with the
knowledge of this set of properties (V, T, P, ).
At a give state, all properties have a fixed value

Figure 1.13: A system at two different states

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-6 State and Equilibrium

Thermal equilibrium: Uniform temperature

throughout the entire system (Figure 1.14).

Mechanical equilibrium: No pressure

change at any point of the system with time.
Figure 1.14

Phase equilibrium: For a system that involves two phases, phase

equilibrium is reached when the mass of each phase reaches an
equilibrium level and stay there.

Chemical equilibrium: When the chemical composition of a

system does not change with time, that is, no chemical reaction
occur.

A system will not be in equilibrium unless all the relevant

equilibrium criteria are satisfied.
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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-6 State and Equilibrium

The State Postulate

The state of a simple compressible system is completely

specified by two independent, intensive properties.
Simple compressible system has no electrical, magnetic,
gravitational, motion, and surface tension effects.
Two properties are independent if one property can be
varied while the other one is held constant.
The state postulate requires that the two properties specified
be independent to fix the state.

Example 7: T and v are always independent

Example 8: T and P are independent properties for singlephase system.
However, they are dependent for
multiphase system (WHY??? We will learn it in chapter 3)
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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-7 Processes and Cycles

Process: Is any change that a system undergoes from

one equilibrium state to another.

Path: Series of states through

which a system passes
during a process.

A process is to be described by:

Initial state
Final state
Path
Interaction with surrounding
Figure 1.15: The P-V diagram of
a compression process.

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-7 Processes and Cycles

Quasi-Equilibrium Process

It is significantly slow process that allows the system to

adjust itself internally so that properties in one part of the
system do not change any faster than those at the other part.
It is a process that proceeds in such a manner that the
system remains infinitesimally close to an equilibrium state at
all time.
It is an ideal process. But many actual processes is modeled
as quasi-equilibrium process with negligible error.

Example 9: A gas piston-cylinder device (Figure 1.16).

(a) Slow compression

(b) Fast compression

Figure 1.16: Quasi-equilibrium and non quasi-equilibrium compression processes

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-7 Processes and Cycles

Process
diagrams
are
plotted
by
employing
thermodynamic properties as coordinate, they are very
useful in visualizing the process.

T, P, V (or v) are properties that

are commonly used as coordinates
of the process diagram.

Example 1: The P-V diagram of

a compressible process
of a gas.
Figure 1.15: The P-V diagram of
a compression process.

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-7 Processes and Cycles

The prefix iso- is often used to designate a process for

which a particular property remains constant.
Isothermal process: T remains constant.
Isobaric process: P remains constant.
Isochoric (or isometric) process: v remains constant.

A system is said to have undergo a cycle if it returns to its

initial state at the end of the process both initial and
final states are identical.

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-7 Processes and Cycles

Steady: no change with time.

Uniform: no change with location over a specified region.

Steady-flow device: an engineering device operate for

long period of time under the same condition, i.e. turbines,
pumps,

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1. Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics

1-7 Processes and Cycles

Steady Flow Process:

A process during which a fluid flows through a control volume

steadily.
In such a process, the fluid properties can change from point to
point within the C.V., but at any fixed point they remain the same
during the entire process, Figure 17.
Therefore, V, m, E of the C.V. remain constant during a steady-flow
process.
At t2

At t1
Mass In

300C

250C

Mass In

Control volume

250C

Control volume

150C
200C

300C

150C
150C

Mass Out

200C

150C

Mass Out

Figure 1.17: Steady flow process.

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