Chapter 2 – Thermodynamics

Publisher Summary This chapter deals with the thermodynamics of heat, momentum, and mass transfer, as well as with the essentials of the thermodynamics of systems with internal state variables. These concepts are presented in the context of transport phenomena, which, by definition, are non-equilibrium processes and have very much to do with the second law of thermodynamics. The first and second laws of thermodynamics are generally applied in cases where state variables may have nonzero gradients, or, internal state variables may have nonequilibrium values. The analysis of the more intricate problems of thermodynamics of kinetics where the system may not be at equilibrium simply because the reaction is not in equilibrium, even though, there are no gradients of anything on the system and relaxation phenomena are, also discussed. Lastly, a glimpse of the problems involved in the formulation of thermodynamic theory of multiphase systems is presented.