ME2121

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

ME2121 – ENGINEERING THERMODYNAMICS

(Semester 2 : AY2017/2018)

Time Allowed : 2 Hours

INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS:

1. Please write your student number only. Do not write your name.

2. This assessment paper contains FOUR (4) questions and comprises FOUR (4)
printed pages.

3. Students are required to answer ALL questions.

4. Students should write the answers for each question on a new page.

5. This is a CLOSED BOOK ASSESSMENT. Students are NOT allowed to bring in any
reference materials into the examination hall.

6. Programmable Calculators are NOT allowed for this assessment.

7. Tables of Thermodynamic and Transport Properties of Fluids by Y.R. Mayhew and

8. Programmable calculators are NOT allowed for this assessment.

QUESTION 1

(a) A piston-cylinder device initially contains 0.5 m3 of nitrogen gas at 4 bar and 27°C as
shown in Figure 1. Nitrogen expends when an electric heater within the device is
turned on and is allowed to pass a current of 2 A for 5 min from a 120 V source. The
mass of the piston remains constant. Assume that nitrogen is a perfect gas and there is
no friction as the piston moves. A heat loss of 2,800 J occurs during the process. Take
nitrogen Cp = 1.04 kJ/kg∙K and Cv = 0.743 kJ/kg∙K. Electric work: We = V·I·Δt (V:
voltage, I: current, Δt: time). Calculate the mass of the nitrogen (kg). Determine the
final temperature of the nitrogen (°C), the change in internal energy (kJ), and the work
done by the nitrogen (kJ). 2.245 kg; 56.64°C; 49.44 kJ; 19.76 kJ

(15 marks)

Piston
m=const.
This is a closed system with an ideal gas.
Since the mass of the piston remains
2800 J
constant, based on the force balance, it is
Frictionless N2 not hard to determine that the process is
cylinder 2A actually constant pressure (isobaric).
V1=0.5 m3
P1=4 bar 120 V
T1=27°C

Figure 1
It is not hard to find the mass, just apply PV=mRT based on the initial given conditions.
MANY students who took the exam failed to notice that the electric work is actually a work supply to the
cylinder (system). Based on the sign convention for a work input, We is negative (-ve). Besides, the
cylinder is expanding due to the rise in the temperature, i.e. Wout=P(V2-V1). Hence the net work change is
Wout-We.
Subsequently, students are able to find the final temperature by applying the First Law and Joule’s Law.
Once the final temperature is determined, the rest are rather simple.
(b) Consider an ordinary shower where hot water at 60°C is mixed with cold water at 10°C.
If it is desired that a constant stream of warm water at 46°C be supplied. Determine the
ratio of the constant mass flow rates of the hot to cold water. Assume the rigid mixing
chamber is well thermally insulated, and the changes in kinetic and potential energies
are negligible. The mixing takes place at a pressure of 1.5 bar.
2.57 (10 marks)

This question is relatively simple and many scored full marks in the exam. It is quite similar to Question 4
in Tutorial 3. It is a steady flow open system problem. Students need to apply SFEE to solve it. The water
conditions in this question are all in the compressed water region and their specific enthalpy values can be
found from the steam tables (full tables are provided in the finals).
 PAGE 3 ME2121

QUESTION 2

(a) An inventor claims to have devised a cyclical engine for use in space vehicles that
operates with a nuclear-fuel-generated energy source whose temperature is 270°C and a
sink at 25°C that radiates waste heat to deep space. He also claims that this engine
produces 6 kW while rejecting heat at a rate of 16,000 kJ/h. Is this claim valid? Assume
that the heat engine operates steadily.
(9 marks)
This question is regarding the 2nd law. For any heat engines, it is understood that the maximum thermal
efficiency is achieved by the reversible Carnot Cycle. No actual thermal efficiency can exceed this.

Hence, the max thermal efficiency can be calculated based on the two temperature reservoirs (convert °C
to K). :0.4512

The actual thermal efficiency is calculated by the definition: useful effect over the energy input: 0.574

The actual thermal efficiency is greater than that of a Carnot Cycle. Hence the claim is invalid.

(b) A rigid tank is divided into two equal parts by a partition. One part of the tank contains
1.5 kg of compressed liquid water at 300 kPa and 60°C while the other part is evacuated.
The partition is now removed, and the water expands to fill the entire tank. Determine
the entropy change (kJ/K) of water during this process, if the final pressure in the tank is
15 kPa. Determine the reversibility of the process, provided the environment
temperature is 25°C and the pressure is 100 kPa.
(16 marks)

This is an irreversible process.

When asked to determine the reversibility, students may want to relate it to the concept of the isolated
system: Siso=Ssys+Ssurr=Sgen. So the task is to determine Ssys and Ssurr. Ssurr is simple since the
temperature of the surroundings in this case is constant, so just use the heat transfer to be divided
by the temp (in K). For the change in entropy of the system, students are required to do a bit
interpolations based on the steam tables. The final state for the water in the rigid tank is actually a two-
phase mixture. Students need to find the dryness fraction. (The initial state is simple: compressed water).