Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach 9th Edition

Book Preface

BACKGROUND

Thermodynamics is an exciting and fascinating subject that deals with energy, and thermodynamics has long been an essential part of engineering curricula all over the world. It has a broad application area ranging from microscopic organisms to common household appliances, transportation vehicles, power generation systems, and even philosophy. This introductory book contains sufficient material for two sequential courses in thermodynamics. Students are assumed to have an adequate background in calculus and physics.

OBJECTIVES

This book is intended for use as a textbook by undergraduate engineering students in their sophomore or junior year, and as a reference book for practicing engineers. The objectives of this text are

⬤⬤ To cover the basic principles of thermodynamics.
⬤⬤ To present a wealth of real-world engineering examples to give students a feel for how thermodynamics is applied in engineering practice.
⬤⬤ To develop an intuitive understanding of thermodynamics by emphasizing the physics and physical arguments that underpin the theory. It is our hope that this book, through its careful explanations of concepts and its use of numerous practical examples and figures, helps students develop the necessary skills to bridge the gap between knowledge and the confidence to properly apply knowledge.

PHILOSOPHY AND GOAL

The philosophy that contributed to the overwhelming popularity of the prior editions of this book has remained unchanged in this edition. Namely, our goal has been to offer an engineering textbook that

⬤⬤ Communicates directly to the minds of tomorrow’s engineers in a simple yet precise manner.
⬤⬤ Leads students toward a clear understanding and firm grasp of the basic principles of thermodynamics.
⬤⬤ Encourages creative thinking and development of a deeper understanding and intuitive feel for thermodynamics.
⬤⬤ Is read by students with interest and enthusiasm rather than being used as an aid to solve problems.

Special effort has been made to appeal to students’ natural curiosity and to help them explore the various facets of the exciting subject area of thermodynamics.

The enthusiastic responses we have received from users of prior editions— from small colleges to large universities all over the world— and the continued translations into new languages indicate that our objectives have largely been achieved. It is our philosophy that the best way to learn is by practice. Therefore, special effort is made throughout the book to reinforce material that was presented earlier.

Yesterday’s engineer spent a major portion of his or her time substituting values into the formulas and obtaining numerical results. However, formula manipulations and number crunching are now being left mainly to computers. Tomorrow’s engineer will need a clear understanding and a firm grasp of the basic principles so that he or she can understand even the most complex problems, formulate them, and interpret the results. A conscious effort is made to emphasize these basic principles while also providing students with a perspective of how computational tools are used in engineering practice. The traditional classical, or macroscopic, approach is used throughout the text, with microscopic arguments serving in a supporting role as appropriate. This approach is more in line with students’ intuition and makes learning the subject matter much easier.

NEW IN THIS EDITION

All the popular features of the previous editions have been retained. A large number of the end-of-chapter problems in the text have been modified and many problems were replaced by new ones. Also, several of the solved example problems have been replaced.

Video Resources—Using the student response data from the eighth edition LearnSmart/SmartBook, 2D/3D animation videos have been added to the ebook to help clarify challenging concepts. In addition to these conceptual video resources, worked example problem videos are included in the ebook to help students apply their conceptual understanding to problem solving.