The Swiss engineering master's degree

In Part A, the module reviews the basics of engineering thermodynamics (the properties of pure and real fluids, the fundamental equations of energy, entropy, and mass balances, and important thermodynamic cycles) and expands on this knowledge to address real fluids in mixtures, phase and chemical equilibria, system stability, and processes with chemical transformation. 

Then, in Part B, students learn to establish connections between detailed thermodynamic formulas and complete thermodynamic systems. The fundamental tools of thermodynamics will be used to model complex thermodynamic systems. Selected examples will illustrate the utility of applying thermodynamics in various practical fields.

Prerequisites

Successful completion of  a bachelor degree course on basic engineering thermodynamics

Learning Objectives

Part A:
The achievement of the main goals in Part A is associated with the following competencies:

• Ability to set up and solve energy and entropy balances for open and closed thermodynamic systems.
• Ability to determine the properties of non-ideal gases and gas mixtures using corresponding states and/or a cubic equation of state.
• Understanding the Gibbs free energy and chemical potential and to be able to calculate conditions for thermal, phase and chemical equilibrium.

Part B:

• Deepen understanding of certain areas of Part A, by applying the knowledge acquired in terms of system analysis.
• Understand examples showing how advanced thermodynamics is applied in practice to the modeling of complex thermomechanical processes (e.g., the organic Rankine cycle) and reactive processes (e.g., chemical stability of metal oxides, or electrochemical applications, such as in fuel cells).
•  Students can analyze and interpret the differences of basic cycles with mixtures as compared to performance with pure fluids

Contents of Module

Part A:

Part A begins with a review of basic principles, conservation equations for mass, energy and entropy and their application. Important thermodynamic cycles are analyzed and the Gibbs Free Energy is introduced. The interrelations between thermodynamic variables are shown and used as the basis for calculating deviations from ideal gas behavior using a cubic equation of state or the corresponding states theory. The concept of fugacity is defined and employed to solve phase equilibrium. The necessity for partial molar properties to describe real mixtures is shown and the chemical potential of components in fluid mixtures is introduced. Conditions for phase and chemical equilibrium are derived and employed in mixtures under ideal and real conditions. Finally, the thermodynamic fundamentals of processes with chemical reactîons are also covered: energy and material balances in chemical reactors, adiabatic flame temperatures, chemical equilibrium states.

Weekly problem sets dealing with the topics are distributed and solutions discussed with the class.

Part B: 

Part B begins with a review and consolidation of selected topics from Part A, putting the knowledge acquired into practice with, on the one hand, applications of non-reactive binary fluid mixtures (e.g. in refrigeration/heat pumps or power generation processes) and, on the other hand, applications of reactive fluid mixtures in thermochemical systems (e.g. the Ellington diagram for metallurgical systems, processes in power to gas applications). 

The fundamentals of processes with chemical reactions are summarized and extended to electrochemical applications and the energetic efficiency of fuel cells. A potentially additional and last topic will be absorption heat pumps.                                                                                      

Teaching and Learning Methods

Lectures with discussion, interactive derivations, supported by PPT slides, weekly problem sets with solutions. In Part A some exercises will be solved using Excel spreadsheets. (Other tools are demonstrated and provided (e.g. Matlab-based), but not necessary for course completion.)

Literature

Sandler, S.I..(1940). Chemical and Engineering Thermodynamics, 2017, ISBN 978-1-119-32128-6, Wiley.