Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics

Citation

Moran, M. J., Shapiro, H. N., Boettner, D. D., & Bailey, M. B. (2018). Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics (9th ed.). Wiley.

Chapter Summary

The book has fourteen chapters and about 880 pages, followed by an appendix of property tables, figures and charts, a set of conversion factors and a section called "How to Use This Book Effectively". Each chapter ends with a "Chapter Summary and Study Guide", and the opening chapter, which the publisher makes available as a sample, shows the pattern: chapter learning outcomes, solved examples, a "Quick Quiz" and a checklist of what the reader should be able to do. The publisher describes the book as teaching students to be effective problem solvers, with real-world applications drawn from energy and the environment, biomedical and bioengineering topics and emerging technologies.

Chapters 1–2: Getting Started; Energy and the First Law of Thermodynamics

Chapter 1 introduces systems (closed systems and control volumes), property, state and process, extensive and intensive properties, equilibrium, SI and English engineering units, specific volume, pressure and temperature, and a five-step method for solving problems: known, find, schematic and given data, engineering model, analysis. It also has a short section on engineering design and analysis. Chapter 2 reviews mechanical energy, broadens the ideas of work and of energy transfer by heat, and builds the energy balance for closed systems, with cycle analysis and a section on energy storage.

Chapter 3: Evaluating Properties

A long chapter on obtaining property data: the pressure-specific volume-temperature relation, phase change, tables and software, specific heats, liquids and solids, the generalised compressibility chart, the ideal gas model and polytropic processes.

Chapter 4: Control Volume Analysis Using Energy

Conservation of mass and energy for control volumes, applied at steady state to nozzles and diffusers, turbines, compressors and pumps, heat exchangers and throttling devices, followed by system integration and transient analysis.

Chapters 5–7: The Second Law of Thermodynamics; Using Entropy; Exergy Analysis

Chapter 5 states the second law, covers reversibility and irreversibility, the Kelvin and international temperature scales, the Carnot cycle and the Clausius inequality. Chapter 6 develops entropy, its balances for closed systems and control volumes, and isentropic efficiencies. Chapter 7 introduces exergy and exergy balances.

Chapters 8–10: Vapor Power Systems; Gas Power Systems; Refrigeration and Heat Pump Systems

Applications of the laws to power cycles and refrigeration, including vapor-compression and absorption refrigeration, heat pump systems and gas refrigeration. Chapter 9 also covers gas turbines for aircraft propulsion and an introduction to compressible flow in nozzles and diffusers.

Chapters 11–14: Thermodynamic Relations; Ideal Gas Mixture and Psychrometric Applications; Reacting Mixtures and Combustion; Chemical and Phase Equilibrium

The last four chapters turn to more advanced material: property relations, mixtures including psychrometrics and air conditioning, combustion with reacting systems, and chemical and phase equilibrium.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–4: Systems, energy and properties

• Closed system and control volume: the two ways of defining what is analysed.
• Energy balance: accounting for energy transfer by work and heat.
• Property evaluation: tables, software and models such as the ideal gas.
• Steady-state devices: nozzles, turbines, compressors, heat exchangers and throttles.

Chapters 5–7: Second law and exergy

• Second-law statements: the Clausius, Kelvin-Planck and entropy statements.
• Entropy and its balance: a property used to find direction and losses.
• Isentropic efficiency: comparison of real turbines, compressors, nozzles and pumps with ideal ones.
• Exergy: the maximum useful work available, relative to a dead state.

Chapters 8–14: Cycles and advanced topics

• Power and refrigeration cycles: vapor power, gas power, refrigeration and heat pump systems.
• Psychrometrics: moist air and air conditioning.
• Combustion and equilibrium: reacting mixtures, chemical and phase equilibrium.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A stated problem-solving method. The first chapter sets out a five-step solution format and cautions against applying it mechanically; the solved examples follow it and are annotated with comments on what is learned.
• Clear learning support. Each chapter provides learning outcomes, margin terms, a "Key Engineering Concepts" list and a study-guide checklist, so readers can check their progress.
• Full coverage of the first course and beyond. The first seven chapters cover the laws and exergy, the next three give the main cycles, and the last four extend to relations, mixtures, combustion and equilibrium.
• Exergy in the main sequence. A full chapter on exergy analysis sits directly after the entropy chapter, so exergy is part of the main sequence.

Limitations

• Size. At 880 pages, the book holds more than a single course can cover, so readers have to decide what to skip.
• Software and tables. The method relies on property tables (the appendix has separate index lists for SI and English units) and on software, so students need to be comfortable moving between both.
• Late chapters are more abstract. Chapter 11 opens with equations of state and a section of important mathematical relations, and Chapter 14 develops equilibrium criteria, so the closing chapters are more mathematical and chemical than the early ones.

Where It Fits in the Course

Among the books for this thermodynamics course, Moran and Shapiro belong with the full engineering texts that cover the whole sequence from the first law to cycles and mixtures; Borgnakke and Sonntag's Fundamentals of Thermodynamics and Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach are engineering textbooks of the same kind and are the closest alternatives, so a student can choose among them by style. Thermodynamics: Concepts and Applications is a lighter, example-driven introduction suited to a first pass. Atkins's The Laws of Thermodynamics: A Very Short Introduction offers the underlying ideas without engineering calculations, and Bejan's Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics is the graduate follow-up, building on exergy and entropy generation after Chapters 5 to 7 here.

How to Use This Book

The book suits engineering students with introductory calculus-based physics and single-variable calculus; some chemistry helps for the combustion chapter.

For a first course, read Chapters 1 to 6 closely, since the control volume and entropy chapters underpin everything later; Chapter 3 can be used as a reference for property data once its logic is clear. Then choose cycles from Chapters 8 to 10 according to the course (power generation or refrigeration). Chapter 7 on exergy is valuable for design-minded students. Chapters 11 to 14 suit a second course or a more advanced track.

Work the end-of-chapter problems using the five-step format, use the Chapter Summary and Study Guide checklists to test readiness, and keep the appendix tables nearby while working.