Thermodynamics: Concepts and Applications

Citation

Turns, S. R., & Pauley, L. L. (2020). Thermodynamics: Concepts and Applications (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Chapter Summary

The second edition is a large full-colour textbook of more than 850 pages: 13 chapters followed by nine appendices (a historical timeline, steam tables, property tables for air, ideal gases, other gases, liquids and hydrocarbon fuels, and psychrometric charts). Stephen Turns wrote the first edition (2006) alone; Laura Pauley joined for this one. Their preface explains the main changes: the book now follows the usual order of a thermodynamics course, the second law is split into two chapters, mixtures, psychrometry, combustion and equilibrium have their own chapters, and the number of end-of-chapter problems has risen from 899 to 1,363, now grouped by section. Every chapter opens with learning objectives and an overview and closes with a summary, a checklist of key concepts and definitions, questions and problems. Three applications run through the book as recurring themes: the steam power plant, the spark-ignition engine and the jet engine.

Chapter 1: Beginnings

What thermodynamics is, illustrated by the three recurring applications. The chapter defines closed and open systems (control volumes), properties, states, processes, cycles, equilibrium and quasi-equilibrium processes, and covers dimensions and units, a problem-solving method and the mathematics to review.

Chapter 2: Thermodynamic Properties, Property Relationships, and Processes

At over 100 pages, the property chapter: the state principle, P–v–T and calorific equations of state, ideal gases and processes in P–v–T space, nonideal gases, liquid–vapour substances and the use of tables, and approximations for liquids and solids. The preface notes that second-law properties are left to later chapters.

Chapter 3: Conservation of Mass

A chapter given entirely to mass conservation, built on a generic balance principle and applied to closed systems, then to open systems in steady and unsteady flow, with flow rates and average velocity. The first-edition preface explains that this deliberately includes material usually found in fluid mechanics books.

Chapter 4: Energy and Energy Transfer

Forms of energy at the system and microscopic levels, heat and work across a boundary, sign conventions and units, and the rate laws for conduction, convection and radiation, which are then used in later examples.

Chapter 5: First Law of Thermodynamics

Energy conservation for a closed system (for an incremental change, a change of state and at an instant), then for open systems in steady and unsteady flow, with applications to open systems.

Chapter 6: Second Law of Thermodynamics and Some of Its Consequences

The cycle-based route to the second law: reservoirs, heat engines, thermal efficiency and coefficients of performance, reversibility, the Kelvin–Planck statement and its consequences (Kelvin's absolute temperature scale and the Carnot efficiency), and alternative statements of the law.

Chapter 7: Entropy and Availability

The longest chapter on principles. Entropy is defined from reversible isothermal heat transfer and developed through the Gibbs relationships, ideal-gas isentropic relations, T–s and h–s diagrams, entropy balances for closed and open systems, and isentropic efficiencies of turbines, pumps, compressors and nozzles. The chapter ends with availability (exergy) and an appendix on the molecular interpretation of entropy. The preface states that its early sections do not depend on Chapter 6, so a course can start the second law here.

Chapter 8: Thermal-Fluid Analysis of Steady-Flow Devices

Nozzles and diffusers, throttles, pumps, compressors and fans, turbines, and heat exchangers, each classified and analysed.

Chapter 9: Systems for Power Production, Propulsion, Heating, and Cooling

The devices of Chapter 8 combined into systems: Rankine cycles with superheat, reheat and regeneration (and nuclear plants), gas-turbine engines, cogeneration and combined-cycle plants, turbojet engines and propulsive efficiency, Otto and diesel cycles, and vapour-compression refrigerators and heat pumps.

Chapters 10–11: Ideal-Gas Mixtures; Air–Vapor Mixtures

Mixture composition and the state, calorific and second-law relationships for ideal-gas mixtures, with the Gibbs free energy; then air–water vapour mixtures for air conditioning and humidification: humidity ratio, relative humidity, dew point, adiabatic saturation, wet- and dry-bulb temperatures and the psychrometric chart.

Chapters 12–13: Reacting Systems; Chemical and Phase Equilibrium

Atom balances and stoichiometry, standardised properties, constant-pressure and constant-volume combustion, heating values, and steady-flow analyses of an engine combustor, a boiler and a power plant's overall energy use. Chapter 13 derives equilibrium from the second law and treats chemical equilibrium at fixed temperature and pressure, multiple reactions and phase equilibrium. The preface describes Chapters 10–13 as topics likely to belong to a second course.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–5: Foundations and the first law

• Closed and open systems: a fixed mass versus a control volume with flow across its boundary, the two frameworks used throughout.
• State principle and equations of state: how a few properties fix the rest, through P–v–T and calorific relations.
• Generic balance principle: one accounting form applied to mass, energy and later entropy.
• First law for open and closed systems: energy conservation in incremental, change-of-state and rate forms.

Chapters 6–9: The second law and its applications

• Kelvin–Planck statement and Carnot efficiency: the cycle-based second law and the limit it sets on heat engines.
• Entropy balance and isentropic efficiency: entropy as a property, and the measure of how far real devices fall short of ideal ones.
• Availability (exergy): the maximum useful work obtainable from a system relative to its surroundings.
• Power and refrigeration cycles: Rankine, gas-turbine, turbojet, Otto, diesel and vapour-compression cycles.

Chapters 10–13: Mixtures and reactions

• Psychrometry: humidity ratio, relative humidity and dew point for moist air.
• Stoichiometry and heating values: mass and energy balances for combustion.
• Chemical equilibrium: the equilibrium composition fixed by the second law at given temperature and pressure.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A flexible route into the second law. The preface explains that the second law can be introduced through cycles in Chapter 6 or through the definition of entropy in Chapter 7, and that Chapter 7's opening sections are written to stand without Chapter 6.
• Thermal-fluid connections. As the first-edition preface sets out, mass conservation has its own chapter including material usually left to fluid mechanics, and heat-transfer rate laws appear in Chapter 4 and are reused in examples. This prepares students for courses in fluid mechanics and heat transfer.
• Structured practice. Worked examples follow a standard problem-solving format, self-tests follow most examples, key equations are highlighted, and 1,363 problems are organised by section, with FE-exam problems and EES or computer problems that solve a case by hand, repeat it in software, then run a parameter study.
• Real property data. Students are encouraged to use NIST property software and the online NIST WebBook as well as the printed tables.

Limitations

• Large and dense. At more than 850 pages, with over 100 pages on properties alone, the book holds more than a single course can cover; instructors and students have to select.
• Second-course material at the end. Mixtures, psychrometry, combustion and equilibrium are present, but the authors themselves place them in a likely second course, so a first course will use only Chapters 1–9.
• US setting in places. The book uses SI units throughout, but Chapter 1 frames its applications with United States electricity data, and the FE-exam problems are aimed at the US licensing examination.

Where It Fits in the Course

Turns and Pauley is the introductory engineering textbook in the thermodynamics list. Atkins's The Laws of Thermodynamics: A Very Short Introduction is a short conceptual companion with almost no mathematics: reading it before or alongside Chapters 1–7 helps students see what temperature, energy and entropy mean before the property tables and balances arrive.

The other main engineering textbooks in the list, Çengel, Boles and Kanoglu's Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach, Borgnakke and Sonntag's Fundamentals of Thermodynamics and Moran, Shapiro, Boettner and Bailey's Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics, cover similar ground and can each serve as the course text. Turns and Pauley is distinctive for its thermal-fluid framing and its two routes into the second law; students using another main text can still borrow its chapters on mass conservation or steady-flow devices as a second explanation. Bejan's Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics is a graduate book that revisits the laws as tools for design and optimisation, a natural sequel after Chapters 7 and 9.

How to Use This Book

The preface addresses undergraduate engineering students meeting the basic principles of thermodynamics for the first time; first-year calculus and physics are the natural background, and Chapter 1 ends its main text with a list of mathematical skills to review.

• Core first course: Chapters 1–9. Read Chapter 2 selectively at first and return to it as later chapters call for properties; the first-edition preface describes the property material as a resource to revisit.
• Second law: follow the route your course chooses, Chapter 6 then 7 or Chapter 7 then 6. Study the availability sections at the end of Chapter 7 if the course covers exergy.
• Second course or specialist modules: Chapters 10–11 for air conditioning and HVAC, Chapters 12–13 for combustion and chemical equilibrium.

Use each chapter's learning objectives and key-concepts checklist to plan revision, work the self-test after each example before moving on, and attempt the EES or computer problems to practise checking a software result against a hand calculation. The free online resources at the publisher's companion site include instructional videos on the first law and ideal-gas processes.