A thermodynamics textbook with solved examples, problems, and real applications. Rigorous, clear, and free to download.
Engineering Thermodynamics is a university textbook written by Olivier Cleynen. It is made for you to download, reuse, and remix.
This textbook offers a clear, progressive introduction to thermodynamics, tailored for university students and future engineers eager to understand the physical principles behind engines and refrigeration systems. It begins from the basics and progressively covers all the important concepts:
Review the essential concepts for the study of thermodynamics
Concept of energy; First law; Mech. energy; Work; Heat; Temperature.
Quantify energy transfers in a fixed quantity of fluid
Quantification of work and heat in a closed system; Concept of irreversibility.
Quantify energy transfers in a continuously-flowing fluid
Usefulness of open and closed systems; Quantification of work and heat.
Predict air temperature and quantify its forms of energy
Advantages and limits of the ideal gas model; Basic elementary processes.
Predict water temperature and quantify its forms of energy
Phase changes, property calculations using charts; Basic elementary processes.
Convert heat into work and vice versa: engines and refrigerators
Thermal machines: efficiency of engines, refrigerators, AC, and heat pumps.
Quantify the fundamental limits of thermal machines
Maximum efficiency of machines (Carnot cycle); Absolute temperature scale.
Quantify irreversibility and predict the direction of processes
Irreversibilities in heat and work transfers; Usefulness of entropy for engineers.
Quantify the performance of steam-powered plants
Carnot and Rankine cycles, with superheating, reheat, and regeneration.
Quantify the performance of gasoline & Diesel engines, and turbomachines
Otto and Diesel cycles; Turbojet, turboprop, etc., and their modifications.
Useful working documents, including Steam Tables from freesteamtables.com.
Steam Tables; Converting to SI units; Bibliography; List of symbols; Index.
With 59 fully-commented, step-by-step calculation examples and 96 problems with solutions, this book equips you to tackle engineering challenges with confidence. Alongside the core, it features short historical explorations which connect the big ideas to their origins and their technological impact.
Dr.-Ing. Olivier Cleynen has been teaching engineering and physics for 15 years, from high school classrooms to French écoles d’ingénieurs and university lecture halls. With a PhD in fluid mechanics and a love for clear thinking, Olivier enjoys turning complicated topics into something students can work with. His latest project is a video course at LearnFluidMechanics.com. He lives with his family in Magdeburg, Germany.
This book is translated from the third edition of the French-language Thermodynamique de l’ingénieur, which has been continuously improved for 10 years, and is used by teachers of the following institutions:
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This book is free, by design: it is kindly made available to you for any use, under the conditions of the CC-by-sa license (it is an open educational resource, or OER). You are free to use it in class as it is, or even to remix it as you need. Cite the book if it is useful! Olivier looks forward to your feedback.