CHG 2324

Fundamentals and applications of chemical

engineering thermodynamics

Chapter 1: Introduction

Winter 2025
Prof. Andrew Anstey
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
University of Ottawa 1
Lecture outline

1. Introductions and housekeeping

2. Course overview

3. Learning objectives

4. Introduction to thermodynamics

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Introductions

Education

B. Eng, University of Guelph, Canada – Biological

Engineering (2015)

PhD, University of Toronto, Canada – Mechanical and

Industrial Engineering (2022)

Research at uOttawa

Sustainable polymer composites

Functional nanostructured materials
Physical chemistry of polymers
Supercritical fluids and phase transition phenomena

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 Introductions

Parsa Salehi My Research area:

AI

Geothermal

Polymers

3D
printing
 Current position : MASc Candidate at CHG department
 Undergrad: BEng Chemical engineering
 Email and teams: [email protected]
 Office: CBY B308
Introductions
Maryam Movafagh
• Fourth-Year PhD Candidate
• Polymer Reaction Engineering Group
• Supervised by Prof. Dubé & Prof. Meek

Research Focus:
• Polymer Synthesis and Processing
• Pressure-Sensitive Adhesives and Coatings

Teaching Experience:
Teaching Assistant for undergraduate and graduate
courses, including:
• Chemical Engineering Fundamentals
• Unit Operations
Housekeeping

Accommodations and support

uOttawa provides academic and religious accommodations to ensure equal and equitable
access to learning for all students. Please feel free to approach me privately or contact
Academic Accommodations ([email protected]) to arrange.

uOttawa also offers a variety of supports related to health and wellness – if you are feeling
unwell, please take care of yourself!

Academic integrity and regulations

Please follow all academic regulations as outlined in the university policy. Assignments will
be evaluated for plagiarism (including the use of artificial intelligence) using Ouriginal upon
submission.

Class attendance is mandatory as per academic regulations.

Late submissions will be assessed following uOttawa policy A-8.6.

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Classroom

Course content

• Lecture slides will be posted to Brightspace.

• MS Teams will be used for communications and general discussion.
• Please contact your TAs or me directly via email or Teams with any individual questions.
• Office hours by appointment – please email us to arrange.

Course materials

• "Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics", by J.M. Smith, H.C. Van Ness

and M.M. Abbott, 9th Edition, 2022, McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., USA
• Supplemental materials will be posted to Brightspace.

Classroom engagement

• Be prepared to take notes in class.

• Refer to syllabus to complete assigned readings before lecture.
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Assessment

Your final grade will be determined from these assessments:

• Tutorial quizzes – 10%

• Midterm 1 – 25% (31 January 2025)

• Midterm 2 – 25% (11 March 2025)

• Final exam – 40% (TBD)

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Course structure

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Learning objectives

By the end of this course, you are expected to understand and apply the
following concepts to solve chemical engineering problems:

• The first law of thermodynamics and energy balances in open and closed
systems
• Pressure-volume-temperature properties of pure fluids and equations of
state
• Heat effects, heat capacity and enthalpy of reaction processes
• The second law of thermodynamics, role of entropy in thermodynamic
processes, and efficiency of thermal processes
• The use of thermodynamic diagrams and tables for mapping processes
• Thermodynamic treatment of fluid flow processes
• Application of thermodynamic cycles to processes including power
generation and refrigeration
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Learning objectives

Where do we use thermodynamics?

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 Scope of thermodynamics

• The field of thermodynamics emerged in

the 19th century with the introduction of
steam engines, as a means to study the
relationship between heat and work.

• Fundamentally, thermodynamics describes

the behaviour of materials and systems in
terms of temperature, pressure, energy
and entropy.

• First law: conservation of energy

• Second law: entropy always increases
• Third law: entropy approaches a constant
value at 0K
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Image via Brittanica
 Scope of thermodynamics

Thermodynamics deals with systems in equilibrium states, and processes leading

from one equilibrium state to another.

→ System and surroundings: the system is our object of interest, with physical or
imaginary boundaries separating it from its surroundings (the rest of the
universe).

→ State: a complete collection of system properties that describe the status of a

system at a certain point in time.

→ Properties: attributes of a system that define its state (ie; temperature,

pressure)

→ Process: the path that a system takes as it changes from one state to another
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 SI units

We describe thermodynamic states and properties in terms of a set of dimensions

established by the International System of Units (Système international d'unités).

There are seven fundamental dimensions (base units) from which we derive
secondary properties (ie; pressure, volume, acceleration, voltage, work).

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Image via NIST
 SI units

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Image via Smith and Van Ness, 9th edition
 SI units

In course of doing engineering work in Canada, we will inevitably encounter the

dreaded imperial system of units.

1 pound = 0.4536 kg
1 foot = 0.3048 m
Fahrenheit vs. Celsius
Rankine vs. Kelvin

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Image via World Atlas
 SI units

• Always double check units when converting

between imperial and metric!

• The Mars Climate Orbiter was a $570 million

spacecraft designed by NASA and manufactured
by Lockheed Martin.

• After a successful launch and traveling all the

way to Mars, the spacecraft approached the
planet at too low an altitude and famously
burned up in its atmosphere before collecting
any mission data.

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Image via Wikimedia Commons
 SI units

What happened?

• All software was intended to

use metric SI units
exclusively.

• A Lockheed component
reported thrust in lbf∙s
instead of N∙s

• Orbital thrust was

overestimated by over 4x

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Image via Wikimedia Commons
 Measures of amount

We use three measures of amount or size to quantify substances/systems:

• Mass m (kg)
• Number of moles n (mol)
• Total volume Vt (m3)

Volume can be further defined as specific or molar volume, which are independent
of the size of the system:

𝑽𝒕 𝟏
• Specific volume
𝒎

𝑽𝒕
• Molar volume
𝒏

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 Temperature

The Kelvin scale is used to express absolute temperatures in SI units, and

originates from the Celsius scale.

Temperature (T) is not the same as heat.

Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the atoms/molecules in

a system, while heat is the flow of thermal energy between two out-of-equilibrium
systems.

A temperature of 0 K (ie; absolute zero) represents a state in which the kinetic

energy of particles in a system is zero (excluding quantum effects).

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 Force

The unit for force (F) is the newton N, expressed as the product of mass and
acceleration.

One newton is the amount of force required to accelerate a mass of 1 kg at a

speed of 1 m/s2, therefore newtons can be expressed in primary units as:

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 Pressure

Pressure (P) is a measure of the normal force exerted on a surface by a fluid per
unit area of the surface, given by:

Many scales exist for pressure, but it is generally expressed in SI units as pascals
(Pa), where on pascal is the pressure of 1 N of force acting on an area of 1 m2 :

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 Pressure

• Pressure was traditionally measured by

the height of a vertical column of fluid
(water or mercury).

• The gravitational acceleration of the

mass of fluid in the column is opposed
by the pressure acting on the fluid
reservoir.

• 1 mm of mercury (mmHg) defines the

pressure of 1 torr, and typical
atmospheric pressure at sea-level is
around 760 mmHg.

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Image via Chelsea Clock
 Pressure

• Gauge pressure (or relative

pressure) can be measured using a
dead-weight gauge.

• The pressure source is opposed by

the pressure exerted by the weight of
the piston assembly on the oil
reservoir.

• Absolute pressure is given by the

sum of a measured gauge pressure
and the local atmospheric pressure.

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Image via Smith and Van Ness, 9th edition
 Practice problem

1.19: A gas is confined in a 0.47 m diameter cylinder by a piston, on which rests a

weight. The mass of the piston and the weight together is 150 kg. The local
acceleration of gravity is 9.813 m/s2, and atmospheric pressure is 101.57 kPa.

a) What is the force in Newtons exerted on the gas by the atmosphere, the piston,
and the weight (assuming no friction between the piston and cylinder)?

b) What is the pressure of the gas in kPa?

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 Energy and power

Energy is the capacity of a system to produce heat and/or work. Energy is

expressed in joules (J), which have SI base units of kg m2 s−2.

𝟏 𝟐
Kinetic energy: 𝑲 𝟐

Potential energy: 𝑷

where m is mass, u is velocity, z is elevation, and g is acceleration due to gravity.

In purely mechanical processes (ie; no losses due to heat or chemical change),

energy is a conserved quantity.

𝑲 𝑷
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 Energy and power

• The internal energy (U) of a system is a measure of all kinetic and potential
energy contained by the particles within the system. This excludes macroscopic
energy contributed by the elevation and velocity of the system as a whole.

• All systems and substances are a collection of atoms and molecules, which are
constantly vibrating with an energy proportional to the temperature of the
system. The internal energy is defined by the sum of the kinetic and potential
energy of each particle in the system.

• Internal energy cannot be directly measured; rather, thermodynamics concerns

changes in internal energy due to work done on or by the system.

𝟐
𝟐 𝟏
𝟏
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 Energy and power

Power is a measure of the flow of energy, and is expressed in watts W. Since 1

watt is equal to energy flowing at a rate of 1 J per second, it can be expressed in
SI base units of kg m2 s−3.

In thermodynamics terms, we can think about power as the rate at which work is
being done to or by a system.

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 Practice problem

1.23: A wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 77 m produces 1.5 MW of electrical

power at a wind speed of 12 m/s. What fraction of the kinetic energy of the air
passing through the turbine is converted to electrical power? Assume a density of
1.25 kg/m3 for air at the operating conditions.

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 Work

Work (W) is a measure of the energy transferred between a system and its
surroundings during a given process. Work is expressed in units of energy (J) and
is performed whenever a force acts across a distance.

We can also define work as a change in volume Vt of a fluid element as the result
of pressure acting on it.

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 Work

• By convention, work is positive

when displacement is in the same
direction of the applied force.

• Work is positive when it is done on

the system by the surroundings;
work is negative when it is done on
the surroundings by the system.

• When work adds energy to the

system, W = +

• When work removes energy from

the system, W = -
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 Practice problem

1.19: A gas is confined in a 0.47 m diameter cylinder by a piston, on which rests a

weight. The mass of the piston and the weight together is 150 kg. The local
acceleration of gravity is 9.813 m/s2, and atmospheric pressure is 101.57 kPa.

c) If the gas in the cylinder is heated, it expands, pushing the piston and the
weight upward. If the piston and weight are raised 0.83 m, what is the work
done by the gas on the piston (in kJ)? What is the change in potential energy of
the piston and weight?

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 Heat

• When we bring a hot object into contact with a cold object, the hot object cools
down and the cold object warms up until they reach the same temperature.

• The amount of energy transferred from the hot object to the cold object is
defined as heat (Q), which has units of energy J. Heat flows spontaneously
from higher temperatures to cold temperatures – anything else requires external
work done on the system.

• Fundamental distinction between heat (Q) and work (W):

→ Heat is the transfer of thermal energy, at a microscopic scale (molecular

vibrations/motion)
→ Work is the transfer of mechanical energy, at a macroscopic scale (change
in velocity/elevation)
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Next lecture: First law of thermodynamics

Reading: Chapters 1 and 2

Textbook practice problems: 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 1.11, 1.12, 1.14, 1.22

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