SYSTEMS AND CONTROL VOLUMES

• System: A quantity of matter or a region in space chosen for study.

• Surroundings: The mass or region outside the system
• Boundary: The real or imaginary surface that separates the system
from its surroundings.
• The boundary of a system can be fixed or movable.
• Systems may be considered to be closed or open.
• Closed system (Control mass): A fixed amount of mass, and no mass
can cross its boundary
• Open system (control volume): A properly selected region in space.
• It usually encloses a device that involves mass flow such as a compressor,
turbine, or nozzle.
• Both mass and energy can cross the boundary of a control volume.
• Control surface: The boundaries of a control volume. It can be real or
imaginary.

Mechanical Engineering and

Design
 STATE AND EQUILIBRIUM
• Thermodynamics deals with equilibrium
states.
• Equilibrium: A state of balance.
• In an equilibrium state there are no
unbalanced potentials (or driving forces)
within the system.
• Thermal equilibrium: If the temperature
is the same throughout the entire system.
• Mechanical equilibrium: If there is no
change in pressure at any point of the
system with time.
• Phase equilibrium: If a system involves
two phases and when the mass of each
phase reaches an equilibrium level and
stays there.
• Chemical equilibrium: If the chemical
composition of a system does not change
with time, that is, no chemical reactions
occur.
 PROCESSES AND CYCLES
Process: Any change that a system undergoes from one equilibrium state to
another.
Path: The series of states through which a system passes during a process.
To describe a process completely, one should specify the initial and final states,
as well as the path it follows, and the interactions with the surroundings.
Quasistatic or quasi-equilibrium process: When a process proceeds in such
a manner that the system remains infinitesimally close to an equilibrium
state at all times.
• Process diagrams plotted by employing
thermodynamic properties as
coordinates are very useful in visualizing
the processes.
• Some common properties that are used
as coordinates are temperature T,
pressure P, and volume V (or specific
volume v).
• The prefix iso- is often used to designate
a process for which a particular property
remains constant.
• Isothermal process: A process during
which the temperature T remains
constant.
• Isobaric process: A process during
which the pressure P remains constant.
• Isochoric (or isometric) process: A
process during which the specific
volume v remains constant.
• Cycle: A process during which the initial
and final states are identical.
The Steady-Flow Process
• The term steady implies no
change with time. The
opposite of steady is
unsteady, or transient.
• A large number of During a steady-
engineering devices operate flow process, fluid
for long periods of time under properties within
the same conditions, and they the control
are classified as steady-flow volume may
devices. change with
• Steady-flow process: A position but not
process during which a fluid with time.
flows through a control
volume steadily.
• Steady-flow conditions can be
closely approximated by
devices that are intended for
continuous operation such as
turbines, pumps, boilers,
condensers, and heat
exchangers or power plants
or refrigeration systems.
 Temperature Scales
• All temperature scales are based on some
easily reproducible states such as the
freezing and boiling points of water: the ice
point and the steam point.
• Ice point: A mixture of ice and water that is
in equilibrium with air saturated with vapor at
1 atm pressure (0°C or 32°F).
• Steam point: A mixture of liquid water and
water vapor (with no air) in equilibrium at 1
atm pressure (100°C or 212°F).
• Celsius scale: in SI unit system
• Fahrenheit scale: in English unit system
• Thermodynamic temperature scale: A
temperature scale that is independent of the
properties of any substance.
• Kelvin scale (SI) Rankine scale (E)
• A temperature scale nearly identical to the
Kelvin scale is the ideal-gas temperature
scale. The temperatures on this scale are
measured using a constant-volume gas
thermometer. Comparison of
magnitudes of various
temperature units.
 MOVING BOUNDARY WORK
Moving boundary work (P dV work): Quasi-equilibrium process:
The expansion and compression work A process during which the system
in a piston-cylinder device. remains nearly in equilibrium at all
times.
Wb is positive  for expansion
Wb is negative  for compression

The work associated

with a moving
boundary is called
boundary work.

A gas does a differential

amount of work Wb as it
forces the piston to move
by a differential amount ds.
 The boundary
work done
during a process
depends on the
path followed as
well as the end
states.

The area under the process curve on a P-V

diagram is equal, in magnitude, to the work
done during a quasi-equilibrium expansion or
compression process of a closed system.
Polytropic, Isothermal, and Isobaric processes
Polytropic process: C, n (polytropic exponent) constants
Polytropic
process

Polytropic and for ideal gas

When n = 1
(isothermal process)

Constant pressure process

What is the boundary

work for a constant-
volume process?

Schematic and
P-V diagram for
a polytropic
process.
PHASE-CHANGE PROCESSES OF PURE
SUBSTANCES
• Compressed liquid (subcooled liquid): A substance that it is not
about to vaporize.
• Saturated liquid: A liquid that is about to vaporize.

At 1 atm and 20°C,

water exists in the
liquid phase
(compressed liquid).

At 1 atm pressure
and 100°C, water
exists as a liquid
that is ready to
vaporize
(saturated liquid).
• Saturated vapor: A vapor that is about to condense.
• Saturated liquid–vapor mixture: The state at which the liquid and
vapor phases coexist in equilibrium.
• Superheated vapor: A vapor that is not about to condense (i.e., not a
saturated vapor).

As more heat is transferred, At 1 atm pressure, the As more heat is

part of the saturated liquid temperature remains transferred, the
vaporizes (saturated liquid– constant at 100°C until the temperature of the
vapor mixture). last drop of liquid is vaporized vapor starts to rise
(saturated vapor). (superheated vapor).
If the entire process between state 1 and 5 described in the figure is
reversed by cooling the water while maintaining the pressure at the
same value, the water will go back to state 1, retracing the same path,
and in so doing, the amount of heat released will exactly match the
amount of heat added during the heating process.

T-v diagram for the

heating process of
water at constant
pressure.

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PROPERTY DIAGRAMS FOR PHASE-CHANGE
PROCESSES
The variations of properties during phase-change processes are best studied
and understood with the help of property diagrams such as the T-v, P-v, and P-T
diagrams for pure substances.

T-v diagram of
constant-pressure
phase-change
processes of a pure
substance at various
pressures
(numerical values
are for water).

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 Saturation Temperature and Saturation
Pressure
• The temperature at which water starts boiling depends on the pressure;
therefore, if the pressure is fixed, so is the boiling temperature.
• Water boils at 100C at 1 atm pressure.
• Saturation temperature Tsat: The temperature at which a pure substance
changes phase at a given pressure.
• Saturation pressure Psat: The pressure at which a pure substance changes
phase at a given temperature.

The liquid–vapor
saturation curve
of a pure
substance
(numerical
values are for
water).
• saturated liquid line
• saturated vapor line
• compressed liquid region
• superheated vapor region
• saturated liquid–vapor
mixture region (wet region)

At supercritical
pressures (P > Pcr),
there is no distinct
phase-change Critical point: The point
(boiling) process. at which the saturated
liquid and saturated vapor
states are identical.
 PROPERTY TABLES
• For most substances, the relationships among thermodynamic properties are too
complex to be expressed by simple equations.
• Therefore, properties are frequently presented in the form of tables.
• Some thermodynamic properties can be measured easily, but others cannot and are
calculated by using the relations between them and measurable properties.
• The results of these measurements and calculations are presented in tables in a
convenient format.

Enthalpy— Combination Property

The
combination
u + Pv is
frequently
encountered
in the analysis
of control
volumes.
The product pressure 
volume has energy units.
Steam Tables

Enthalpy of vaporization, hfg (Latent

heat of vaporization): The amount of
energy needed to vaporize a unit mass
of saturated liquid at a given
temperature or pressure.
Examples:
Saturated liquid
and saturated
vapor states of
water on T-v and
P-v diagrams.
Saturated Liquid–Vapor Mixture
Quality, x : The ratio of the mass of vapor to the total mass of the mixture.
Quality is between 0 and 1 0: sat. liquid, 1: sat. vapor.
The properties of the saturated liquid are the same whether it exists alone or in
a mixture with saturated vapor. Temperature and
pressure are dependent
properties for a mixture.

The relative
amounts of
liquid and
vapor phases
in a saturated
mixture are
specified by
the quality x.
A two-phase system can be
treated as a homogeneous
mixture for convenience.
22
Examples: Saturated liquid-vapor
mixture states on T-v and P-v diagrams.
In the region to the right of the Superheated Vapor
saturated vapor line and at
temperatures above the critical Compared to saturated vapor,
point temperature, a substance superheated vapor is characterized by
exists as superheated vapor.
In this region, temperature and
pressure are independent
properties.

At a specified
P, superheated
vapor exists at
a higher h than
the saturated
vapor.
The compressed liquid properties Compressed Liquid
depend on temperature much more Compressed liquid is characterized by
strongly than they do on pressure.
y  v, u, or h

A more accurate relation for h

A compressed liquid
may be approximated
as a saturated liquid at
the given temperature.
 Reference State and Reference Values
• The values of u, h, and s cannot be measured directly, and they are calculated from
measurable properties using the relations between properties.
• However, those relations give the changes in properties, not the values of properties at
specified states.
• Therefore, we need to choose a convenient reference state and assign a value of zero for
a convenient property or properties at that state.
• The referance state for water is 0.01°C and for R-134a is -40°C in tables.
• Some properties may have negative values as a result of the reference state chosen.
• Sometimes different tables list different values for some properties at the same state as a
result of using a different reference state.
• However, In thermodynamics we are concerned with the changes in properties, and the
reference state chosen is of no consequence in calculations.
THE IDEAL-GAS EQUATION OF STA
• Equation of state: Any equation that relates the pressure, temperature,
and specific volume of a substance.
• The simplest and best-known equation of state for substances in the gas
phase is the ideal-gas equation of state. This equation predicts the P-v-T
behavior of a gas quite accurately within some properly selected region.

Ideal gas equation Ideal gas equation at two

states for a fixed mass
of state

R: gas constant
M: molar mass (kg/kmol)
Ru: universal gas constant

Different substances have different

gas constants.
Is Water Vapor an Ideal Gas?
• At pressures below 10 kPa, water
vapor can be treated as an ideal
gas, regardless of its
temperature, with negligible error
(less than 0.1 percent).
• At higher pressures, however, the
ideal gas assumption yields
unacceptable errors, particularly
in the vicinity of the critical point
and the saturated vapor line.
• In air-conditioning applications,
the water vapor in the air can be
treated as an ideal gas. Why?
• In steam power plant
applications, however, the
pressures involved are usually
very high; therefore, ideal-gas
relations should not be used.
ENERGY ANALYSIS OF STEADY-FLOW
SYSTEMS
Mass and Energy balances for a steady-flow process

A water
heater in
Mass steady
balance operation.
 Energy balance relations with sign conventions (i.e., heat input
and work output are positive)

when kinetic and potential energy

changes are negligible Under steady
operation, shaft work
and electrical work
are the only forms of
work a simple
compressible system
may involve.
 THE CARNOT CYCLE

Execution of the Carnot cycle in a closed system.

Reversible Isothermal Expansion (process 1-2, TH = constant)
Reversible Adiabatic Expansion (process 2-3, temperature drops from TH to TL)
Reversible Isothermal Compression (process 3-4, TL = constant)
Reversible Adiabatic Compression (process 4-1, temperature rises from TL to TH32)
P-V diagram of the Carnot cycle.
P-V diagram of the reversed
Carnot cycle.

The Reversed Carnot Cycle

The Carnot heat-engine cycle is a totally reversible cycle.
Therefore, all the processes that comprise it can be reversed, in which
case it becomes the Carnot refrigeration cycle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJlmRT4E6R0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3N_QJVucF8
Reference

Thermodynamics: An engineering approach, Cengel & Boles (McGraw-Hill

publishing)

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