Engineering Thermodynamics

Our modern technological society is based largely on the replacement of human and animal labor by animate, power-producing machinery. Examples of such machinery are steam power plants that generate electricity, locomotives that pull freight and passenger trains, and internal combustion engines that power automobiles. In each of these examples, working fluids such as steam and gases are generated by combustion of a fuel-air mixture and then are caused to act upon mechanical devices to produce power. Predictions of how much energy can be obtained from the working fluid and how well the extraction of energy from the working fluid can be accomplished are the province of an area of engineering called thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is based on two experimentally observed laws.