Heat, Work and Energy Tutorial - Essentials As Specific Heat
Heat, Work and Energy Tutorial - Essentials As Specific Heat
Heat, Work and Energy Tutorial - Essentials As Specific Heat
heat will transfer from a warm body with higher temperature to a colder body with lower temperature
Other units used to quantify heat are the British Thermal Unit - Btu (the amount of heat to raise 1 lb of water by 1oF)
and the Calorie (the amount of heat to raise 1 gram of water by 1oC (or 1 K)).
A calorie is defined as the amount of heat required to change the temperature of one gram of liquid water by one
degree Celsius (or one degree Kelvin).
1 cal = 4.184 J
Unit converter
Specific Enthalpy
Specific Enthalpy is a measure of the total energy in a unit mass. The SI-unit commonly used is J/kg or kJ/kg.
The term relates to the total energy due to both pressure and temperature of a fluid (such as water or steam) at any
given time and condition. More specifically enthalpy is the sum of internal energy and work done by applied pressure.
Heat Capacity
Heat Capacity of a system is
the amount of heat required to change the temperature of the whole system by one degree.
Specific Heat
Specific heat (= specific heat capacity) is the amount of heat required to change temperature of one mass unit of a
substance by one degree.
Specific heat may be measured in J/g K, J/kg K, kJ/kg K, cal/gK or Btu/lboF and more.
Never use tabulated values of heat capacity without checking the unites of the actual values!
Specific heat for common products and materials can be found in the Material Properties section.
The change in internal energy with respect to change in temperature at fixed pressure is the Specific Heat at constant
pressure - cp.
The specific heat represents the amount of energy required to raise 1 kg of substance by 1oC (or 1 K), and can be
thought of as the ability to absorb heat. The SI units of specific heats are J/kgK (kJ/kgoC). Water has a large specific
heat of 4.19 kJ/kgoC compared to many other fluids and materials.
Q = cp m dT (2)
where
m = mass (kg)
Consider the energy required to heat 1.0 kg of water from 0 oC to 100 oC when the specific heat of water is 4.19
kJ/kgoC:
Work
The amount of mechanical work done can be determined by an equation derived from Newtonian mechanics
or
W = F l (3)
where
W = work (Nm, J)
Work can also be described as the product of the applied pressure and the displaced volume:
or
W = p A l (3b)
where
l = length or distance the pressurized area is moved by the applied force (m)
W = (100 N) (50 m)
The unit of work is joule, J, which is defined as the amount of work done when a force of 1 newton acts for a distance of
1 m in the direction of the force.
1 J = 1 Nm
W = Fg h
= m g h
where
h = elevation (m)
hydro power
In imperial units a unit work is done when a weight of 1 lbf (pound-force) is lifted vertically against gravity through a
distance of 1 foot. The unit is called lb ft.
An object with mass 10 slugs is lifted 10 feet. The work done can be calculated as
W = Fg h
= m g h
W = (v22 - v12) m / 2
where
Energy
Energy is the capacity to do work (a translation from Greek-"work within"). The SI unit for work and energy is the joule,
defined as 1 Nm.
Moving objects can do work because they have kinetic energy. ("kinetic" means "motion" in Greek).
where
v = velocity (m/s)
The energy of a level position (stored energy) is called potential energy. This is energy associated with forces of
attraction and repulsion between objects (gravity).
The total energy of a system is composed of the internal, potential and kinetic energy. The temperature of a substance
is directly related to its internal energy. The internal energy is associated with the motion, interaction and bonding of the
molecules within a substance. The external energy of a substance is associated with its velocity and location, and is the
sum of its potential and kinetic energy.