BAYERO UNIVERSITY, KANO

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

EGR2205 THERMODYNAMICS I 2023/2024
Worked Example 1 (WE1)
The goal of this problem set is to (i) understand the basic concepts and definitions in
thermodynamics (ii) identify Heat and work transfer interactions (ii) Determine various forms of
mechanical work (iii) Apply the first law to the solution of simple problems.
Problem 1: Conceptual Questions
i. If a system is closed, can the system undergo: (a) A work transfer? (b) A heat transfer? (c) A
mass transfer?
A closed system is defined as one for which mass transfer does not occur. Accordingly,
work and heat transfer are allowed but not mass transfer.

ii. Burning of a candle. A candle is burning in a perfectly insulated room. Taking the content of
the room (the air and the candle) as the system, draw the boundary of your system and
determine: (a) if the system undergoes a heat transfer during this burning process, (b) if there is
any change in the total energy content of the system, and (c) if there is a change in the internal
energy of the system.

Solution
(a) There is no heat transfer because we assume a perfectly insulated room
(b) There is no change in the total energy of the system because by the first law,
Δ𝐸=𝑄−𝑊, and 𝑄=0 (no heat transfer) and 𝑊=0 (no work added or removed from
system) in this case.
(c) There is an increase in the internal energy. Now, the first law still holds, and Δ𝐸 is
still zero since 𝑄=0 and 𝑊=0, so where can this increase of internal energy come
from? …from a decrease in the chemical energy of the candle during the burning
process, in which chemical energy is converted to internal energy, i.e.
Δ𝐸=ΔU+ΔE𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑚=0, from which ΔU=−ΔE𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑚>0. The temperature of the system
increases as a result of the internal energy increase.

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 iii. On a hot summer day, a student turns her fan on when she leaves her room in the morning.
When she returns in the evening, will the room be warmer or cooler than the neighboring
rooms? Why? Assume that all of the doors and windows of the room are kept closed, and
clearly state your assumptions and system boundary.

Solution
Here, we will assume a perfectly insulated room and that there is no heat transfer into
or out of the room via sunlight through windows, heat losses, etc. There are a few ways
of looking at this problem…
Method 1:
Taking the system as encompassing the room and the fan, there is work transfer (but no
heat transfer) into the system via electricity supplied to the fan. From the First Law, the
energy content of the system increases Δ𝐸=0−𝑊>0 where 𝑊<0 because it is work
transfer into the system. Within the system, energy redistribution occurs mainly as work
transfer from the fan blades to the air and then kinetic energy conversion to internal
energy in the air (due to friction). The air temperature will rise as a consequence of its
rise in internal energy.
Method 2:
If you took a control volume that included the fan and the room, but assumed the fan
was battery powered instead of plugged into an electrical outlet, there is no work
transfer and no heat transfer into the room-fan system. In this case, the energy content
of the system stays constant (Δ𝐸=0), and there is conversion of chemical energy in the
battery to kinetic energy of the blades, to kinetic energy of the air and finally to internal
energy of the air. Again, the air temperature rises as a result of this process.

Problem 2: Train Transportation

Consider the Kaduna-Abuja train which has a normal operating speed of 80 km/hr. The train consist of
a single locomotive and ten (10) passenger cars with a total mass of 4.4 x 10 5 kg. It is being propelled
by 2 engines capable of converting energy from a fuel into mechanical power at the rate of 8.8 MW.
On a particular section of the track, the train enters a speed of 80 km/hr and an elevation of 0 m and
exit at a speed of 35 km/hr at an elevation of 300 m.
i. Estimate the minimum work transfer required to accomplish this change of state
ii. The minimum time required to carry out the process
iii. If at the exit speed of 35 km/hr, an elastic spring is now used to bring the train to rest in 0.1m,
what will be the spring constant of this elastic spring?
Solution
System: The train (excluding the engine)
𝑘𝑚 𝑚
States: Initial; 𝑉1 = 80 = 22.2 𝑠 , 𝑍1 = 0 𝑚
ℎ𝑟
𝑚
Final; 𝑉2 = 9.7 𝑠 , 𝑍2 = 300𝑚

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Part I
Interaction: Q=0, 𝑊 ≠ 0
First Law: 𝑄 − 𝑊 = ∆𝐸𝑠𝑦𝑠 , thus −𝑊 = ∆𝐸𝑠𝑦𝑠
1
∆𝐸𝑠𝑦𝑠 = ∆𝐾𝐸 + ∆𝑃𝐸 = 𝑚(𝑉22 − 𝑉12 ) + 𝑚𝑔(𝑍2 − 𝑍1 )
2
Thus:
1
−𝑊 = 𝑚(𝑉22 − 𝑉12 ) + 𝑚𝑔(𝑍2 − 𝑍1 )
2
𝑚 𝑚
Substituting” 𝑚 = 4.4 × 105 𝑘𝑔, 𝑉2 = 9.7 𝑠 , 𝑉1 = 22.2 , 𝑍1 = 0𝑚 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑍2 = 300𝑚
𝑠

𝑊 = −1.2071 × 109 𝐽
Thus minimal work required to accomplish this is change of state is = 1.207 GJ
The negative sign indicates that the train is doing work to the surrounding.
Question to ponder:
• What if the engine stopped running before entering this section (W=0), what will be the
speed of the train at the exit of the section?
• What amount of work must be supplied by the engine to maintain the speed of 80 km/hr
throughout the section?
Part II: Minimum time required to carry out the process
This is the time required by the engine to produce 1.2071 GJ
Thus:
𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 1.2071 × 109
∆𝑡 = = = 137.17 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠
𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 8.8 × 106
Part III: If an elastic spring is used
Work required to decelerate from 35 km/hr to 0 km/hr
1
𝑊𝑎 = 𝑚(𝑉22 − 𝑉12 )
2
Substituting values:
𝑊𝑎 = −2.07 × 107 𝐽
This must be equal to the spring work:
𝑊𝑠𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 = −𝑊𝑎 = 2.07 × 107 𝐽

Thus

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 1
2.07 × 107 = 𝐾(𝑥22 − 𝑥12 )
2
1
2.07 × 107 = 𝐾(0.12 )
2
2.07 × 107 × 2 𝑁
𝐾= 2
= 4.14 × 109 = 4.14 × 106 𝑘𝑁/𝑚2
0.1 𝑚

Problem 3: Steel Quenching

As part of a heat-treating operation, a steel part with a mass of 150 kg is to be quenched from a
temperature of 1000 °C to a temperature of 60 °C. Available as a quenching medium is a water bath at
20 °C enclosed in an adiabatic chamber. The specific heat of steel is 473 J/kg-K and the specific heat of
water is 4187 J/kg-K.
a) Is there any heat transfer into (or out of) the system consisting of the steel part and the water?
b) What is the minimum necessary amount of water to perform the quenching process?
c) If another liquid with a specific heat ten times that of water was used for quenching the steel
part, how much less/more of this liquid would you need to complete the quenching?

Solution
PART A
There is no heat transfer in or out of the steel-part-and-water system (that’s what the term
adiabatic means). Heat is only transferred within the system, from the steel to the water.

PART B: What is the necessary amount of water?

States: Initial: 𝑇1𝑠 = 100℃ 𝑇1𝑤 = 20℃
Final 𝑇2𝑠 = 60℃ 𝑇2𝑤 = 60℃
𝐽
𝑚𝑠 = 150 𝑘𝑔, 𝑐𝑤 = 4187 , 𝑐𝑠 = 473 𝐽/𝑘𝑔𝐾
𝑘𝑔
Interaction: Q=0, W=0 (Isolated system)

First Law: 𝐸2 − 𝐸1 = 𝑄 − 𝑊
∆𝐸𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡 = 0

𝑚𝑠 𝑐𝑠 ∆𝑇𝑠 + 𝑚𝑤 𝑐𝑤 ∆𝑇𝑤 = 0
𝑚𝑤 = (𝑚𝑠 𝑐𝑠 (𝑇2𝑠 − 𝑇1𝑠 ))/(𝑐𝑤 (𝑇2𝑤 − 𝑇1𝑤 )

150 × 473(1000 − 60)

𝑚𝑤 = = 398.2 𝑘𝑔
4187(60 − 20)

An alternative approach would be to treat the steel and the water as two separate, non-isolated
systems which transfer heat between each other (but not between themselves and the
environment), and then apply the first law to each of the two systems. Applying the First Law to
each system separately, noting that in either case no work transfers are occurring, we have:
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 ∆𝐸𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑙 = 𝑄𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟
∆𝐸𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 = 𝑄𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑙
But:

𝑄𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 = −𝑄𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑙

∆𝐸𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑙 + ∆𝐸𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 = 𝑄𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 + 𝑄𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑙 = 0

After applying the internal energy constitutive relation, we arrive at the same result as before,
namely:
∆𝐸𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑙 + ∆𝐸𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 = 𝑚𝑠 𝑐𝑠 ∆𝑇𝑠 + 𝑚𝑤 𝑐𝑤 ∆𝑇𝑤 = 0
Thus we arrive at the same equation as before

PART C
For a liquid with specific heat ten times that of water, the mass required would be one-tenth
mass of water:
𝑚𝑠 𝑐𝑠 ∆𝑇𝑠 𝑚𝑠 𝑐𝑠 ∆𝑇𝑠 1 𝑚𝑠 𝑐𝑠 ∆𝑇𝑠
𝑚𝐿 = = =
𝑐𝐿 ∆𝑇𝐿 10𝑐𝑤 ∆𝑇𝑤 10 𝑐𝑤 ∆𝑇𝑤
𝑚𝑤
𝑚𝐿 = = 39.82 𝑘𝑔
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