Scribd
Upload
41 views2 pages

Relationship To The First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation of Energy)

Heat transfer plays a vital role in thermodynamics by transferring energy between systems and their surroundings. While thermodynamics can determine the energy required for a system to change states, it does not consider the mechanisms or rates of heat exchange. Studying heat transfer specifically seeks to quantify the rate of heat exchange through rate equations. As engineers, we often focus on thermal and mechanical energy, but must recognize that other forms can convert to thermal or mechanical energy, such as chemical energy converting to thermal energy during combustion.

Uploaded by

Aiza Albufera
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
41 views2 pages

Relationship To The First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation of Energy)

Heat transfer plays a vital role in thermodynamics by transferring energy between systems and their surroundings. While thermodynamics can determine the energy required for a system to change states, it does not consider the mechanisms or rates of heat exchange. Studying heat transfer specifically seeks to quantify the rate of heat exchange through rate equations. As engineers, we often focus on thermal and mechanical energy, but must recognize that other forms can convert to thermal or mechanical energy, such as chemical energy converting to thermal energy during combustion.

Uploaded by

Aiza Albufera
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

You have already taken your thermodynamics course and so you are already aware that heat exchange

plays a
vital role in the first and second laws of thermodynamics because it is a primary mechanism for energy
transfer between a system and its surroundings.

While thermodynamics may be used to determine the amount of energy required in the form of heat for a
system to pass from one state to another, it considers neither the mechanisms that provide for heat
exchange nor the methods that exist for computing the rate of heat exchange.

That is why we need to study heat transfer because the discipline of heat transfer specifically seeks to quantify
the rate at which heat is exchanged through the rate equations expressed from our previous discussion.

Relationship to the First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation of Energy)

The first law of thermodynamics states that the total energy of a system is conserved, where total energy
consists of mechanical energy (which is composed of kinetic and potential energy) and internal energy (Fig.
1.7).

Internal energy can be subdivided into thermal energy (which will be defined more carefully later) and other
forms of internal energy, such as chemical and nuclear energy. Since total energy is conserved, the only way
that the amount of energy in a system can change is if energy crosses its boundaries.

For a closed system (a region of fixed mass), there are only two ways energy can cross the system boundaries:
heat transfer through the boundaries and work done on or by the system. This leads to the following statement
of the first law for a closed system, which is familiar if you have taken a course in thermodynamics:

Delta E is the change in the total energy stored in the system, Q is the net heat transferred to the system, and W
is the net work done by the system. This is schematically illustrated in Figure 1.8a.

The first law can also be applied to a control volume (or open system), a region of space bounded by a control
surface through which mass may flow. Mass entering and leaving the control volume carries energy with it;
this process, termed energy advection, adds a third way in which energy can cross the boundaries of a control
volume. To summarize, the first law of thermodynamics can be simply stated as follows for both a control
volume and a closed system:
As engineers, we often focus our attention on the thermal and mechanical forms of energy. We must recognize
that the sum of thermal and mechanical energy is not conserved, because conversion can occur between other
forms of energy and thermal or mechanical energy. For example, during combustion the amount of chemical
energy in the system will decrease and the amount of thermal energy in the system will increase. If an electric
motor operates within the system, it will cause conversion from electrical to mechanical energy.
We can think of such energy conversions as resulting in thermal or mechanical energy generation (which can
be either positive or negative). So a statement of the first law that is well suited for heat transfer analysis is:

This expression applies over a time interval t, and all the energy terms are measured in joules. Since the first
law must be satisfied at every instant of time t, we can also formulate the law on a rate basis. That is, at any
instant, there must be a balance between all energy rates, as measured in joules per second (W). In words, this
is expressed as:

You might also like