The week ahead

This week of thermodynamics in energy engineering, we are going to demonstrate the usefulness of the property relations in various situations. Thermodynamic properties such as temperature, pressure, volume and entropy are related with each other. Some property changes depending on other property changes are kind of clear and can be easily obtained. For example, the dependence of volume on temperature at constant pressure can be simply calculated from the equation of state for ideal gases or the thermal expansion coefficient for solids. However, the dependence of entropy on pressure is not that simple at a glance. The Maxwell relations or property relations convert those non-simple relations into more familiar ones with some mathematical manipulations.

This week, we are going to be looking at various situations that need Maxwell relations in calculating property changes. We will be able to interpret the situations into mathematical formulations with the help of Maxwell relations.