MEC151

Thermodynamics 1
Lecture 11

The Second Law of Thermodynamics

Ahmed Saleh
Faculty of Engineering
Galala University
 Learning objectives
• Introduce the second law of thermodynamics.
• Identify valid processes as those that satisfy both the first
and second laws of thermodynamics.
• Introduce thermal energy reservoirs, heat engines,
refrigerators & heat pumps.
• Describe the Kelvin–Planck & Clausius statements of the
second law of thermodynamics.

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6.1 Introduction to the second law
• The 1st law places no restriction on the direction
of a process; satisfying the 1st law does not
ensure that the process can actually take place.
→ Processes proceed in a certain direction and not in the
reverse direction.
• The 2nd law is used to identify the direction of
processes & it also asserts that energy has
quality as well as quantity.
• Simply put, the 2nd law states that as energy
transforms from one form to another, more and
more of it is wasted (it gets less useful).

• The are several formal statements of the

2nd law, but we first need to introduce a
few concepts: thermal energy reservoirs,
heat engines and thermal efficiency.

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6.2 Thermal energy reservoirs
• A thermal energy reservoir (or just a
reservoir) is a hypothetical body with a
relatively large thermal energy capacity (mass
× specific heat) that can supply or absorb
finite amounts of heat without undergoing any
noticeable change in temperature (examples:
large bodies of water such as oceans, lakes &
rivers and the atmospheric air).
• A source is a reservoir that supplies energy in
the form of heat.
• A sink is a reservoir that absorbs energy in
the form of heat.
→ Thermal energy reservoirs are often referred to as
heat reservoirs since they supply or absorb energy
in the form of heat.

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6.3 Heat engines
• Heat engines are devices used to convert heat to work.
→ They receive heat from a high-temperature source (solar
energy, oil furnace, nuclear reactor, etc.), convert part of this
heat to work (usually in the form of a rotating shaft) & reject
the remaining waste heat to a low-temperature sink (the
atmosphere, rivers, etc.).
→ They operate on a cycle.
→ Heat engines and other cyclic devices usually involve a
working fluid to and from which heat is transferred while
undergoing a cycle.
• A device that best fits into the definition of a
heat engine is the steam power plant.
→ Net work output of the power plant (ΔU = 0):
Wnet = Wout – Win = Qin – Qout (kJ)

• Should the power plant and its components

be treated as closed or open system? 5
 Thermal efficiency
• Thermal efficiency (ηth): The fraction of the heat
input that is converted to net work output is a measure
of the performance of a heat engine.
𝑁𝑒𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑊𝑛𝑒𝑡 𝑄𝑜𝑢𝑡
ηth = = =1−
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑄𝑖𝑛 𝑄𝑖𝑛

→ ηth is a measure of how efficiently a heat engine converts the

heat that it receives to work.
• No heat engine can have a thermal efficiency of 100%.
• ηth of work-producing devices are relatively low.

→ Even the most efficient heat engines reject almost one-half of the energy they
receive as waste heat to rivers, lakes or the atmosphere.
→ For spark-ignition automobile engines, ηth ≈ 25% (it converts ~25% of the
chemical energy of the gasoline to mechanical work).
→ For diesel engines & large gas-turbine power plants, ηth ≈ 40% and for large
combined gas-steam power plants, ηth ≈ 60%.
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 Can we save the waste energy (Qout)?
• Consider the following simple experiment:
→ Initially, the gas temperature is say 30 °C &
the loaded piston is resting on top of the
lower stops.
→ Transferring 100 kJ of heat from a high-T
source will increase the gas temperature to,
say 90 °C, causing it to expand & raise the
piston to reach the upper stops. The work
done on the load during expansion is, say A simple heat engine consisting of a piston–
cylinder device with two sets of stops.
15 kJ (= ΔPE).
→ Now, if it is possible to transfer the 85 kJ of excess heat at 90 °C back to the high-T
reservoir at 100°C, we will have a heat engine with a thermal efficiency of 100%.
→ Obviously, this is not possible as heat is always transferred from high-T to low-T.
→ Therefore, the gas can only return to its initial state (to complete the cycle) by
rejecting its 85 kJ of excess energy as heat to a low-T reservoir, say at 20°C.

• Every heat engine must waste some energy by transferring it to a low-T

reservoir in order to complete the cycle, even under idealized conditions.
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 The 2nd law of thermodynamics: Kelvin–Planck statement

• It is impossible for any device that operates on a cycle

to receive heat from a single reservoir and produce a
net amount of work.

→ A heat engine must exchange heat with a low-temperature

sink as well as a high-temperature source to keep
operating.

• No heat engine can have a thermal efficiency of 100%.

• For a power plant to operate, the working fluid must

exchange heat with the environment as well as the
furnace.

→ The impossibility of having a 100% efficient heat engine is not due to friction or
other dissipative effects. It is a limitation that applies to both the idealized and
the actual heat engines.
→ The maximum thermal efficiency of a heat engine depends on the reservoir
temperatures only.
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6.4 Refrigerators & heat pumps
• Refrigerators are cyclic devices that transfer
heat from a low-T medium to a high-T one.
→ The working fluid in the refrigeration cycle is
called a refrigerant.
→ The most common refrigeration cycle is the
vapor-compression refrigeration cycle.
→ The efficiency of a refrigerator is expressed in
terms of the coefficient of performance (COP).
𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑄𝐿 𝑄𝐿
COPR = = =
𝑅𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑊𝑛𝑒𝑡,𝑖𝑛 𝑄𝐻 −𝑄𝐿

→ The value of COPR can be greater than unity (the

amount of heat removed from the refrigerated
space can be greater than the amount of work
input).
• Heat pumps also transfers heat from a low-T
medium to a high-T one, but their objective is
to maintain a heated space at a high
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temperature (desired output = QH).
 The 2nd law of thermodynamics: Clausius statement

• It is impossible to construct a device that operates in a

cycle & produces no effect other than the transfer of
heat from a lower-temperature body to a higher-
temperature body.
→ A refrigerator cannot operate unless its compressor is
driven by an external power source (e.g. an electric motor).
→ The Kelvin–Planck & Clausius statements are equivalent,
and either statement can be used as the expression of the
2nd law of thermodynamics.

Any device that violates the Kelvin–

Planck statement also violates the
Clausius statement and vice versa.

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Example 1: Net Power Production of a Heat Engine
• Heat is transferred to a heat engine from a furnace at a rate of 80 MW. If
the rate of waste heat rejection to a nearby river is 50 MW, determine the
net power output and the thermal efficiency for this heat engine.

Solution:
The net power output of the heat engine is
determined from the conservation of energy:
𝑾ሶ net = 𝑸ሶ H – 𝑸ሶ L
𝑾ሶ net = 80 – 50 = 30 MW

The thermal efficiency is determined from:

𝑾ሶ 𝑛𝑒𝑡 30
ηth = ሶ = = 0.375 = 37.5 %
𝑸H 80

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Example 2: Heat Rejection by a Refrigerator
• The food compartment of a refrigerator is maintained at 4 °C by removing
heat from it at a rate of 360 kJ/min. If the required power input to the
refrigerator is 2 kW, determine (a) the coefficient of performance of the
refrigerator and (b) the rate of heat rejection to the room that houses the
refrigerator.
Solution:
(a) The coefficient of performance of the refrigerator is:
𝑸ሶ 360
COPR = 𝑾ሶ L = 2 × 60 = 3
𝑛𝑒𝑡

→ This means that 3 kJ of heat is removed from the

refrigerated space for each kJ of work supplied.

(b) The rate at which heat is rejected to the room is

determined from the conservation of energy:
𝑾ሶ net = 𝑸ሶ H – 𝑸ሶ L
𝑸ሶ H = 360 + (2 × 60) = 480 kJ/min
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Example 3: Heating a House by a Heat Pump
• A heat pump is used to meet the heating requirements of a house and
maintain it at 20 °C. On a day when the outdoor air temperature drops to
–2 °C, the house is estimated to lose heat at a rate of 80,000 kJ/h. If the
heat pump under these conditions has a COP of 2.5, determine (a) the
power consumed by the heat pump and (b) the rate at which heat is
absorbed from the cold outdoor air.
Solution:
(a) The power consumed is determined from the COP
definition (𝑪𝑶𝑷HP = 𝑸ሶ HΤ𝑾ሶ 𝑛𝑒𝑡 ):
ሶ𝑸 80,000
𝑾ሶ 𝑛𝑒𝑡,𝑖𝑛 = 𝑪𝑶𝑷H = 2.5 = 32,000 kJ/h = 8.9 kW
𝐻𝑃

(b) The rate of heat transfer from the outdoor is

determined from the conservation of energy:
𝑸ሶ L = 𝑸ሶ H – 𝑾ሶ net, in = 80,000 – 32,000 = 48,000 kJ/h

→ This means that 48,000 of the 80,000 kJ/h heat delivered to the house is actually
extracted from the cold outdoor air. Therefore, we are paying only for the 32,000 kJ/h 13
energy that is supplied as electrical work to the heat pump.
Reading assignment
• Read the following sections in Chapter 6 of the textbook:
6-1 Introduction to the second law
6-2 Thermal energy reservoirs
6-3 Heat engines
6-4 Refrigerators and heat pumps
• Watch this video on “How Thermal power plant works”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdPTuwKEfmA

• Watch this video on “How Refrigerator Works”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5wQoA15OnQ

• Watch this video on “How Air Conditioning System Works”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5wQoA15OnQ

• Watch this video on “Perpetual Motion Machines”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-QgGXbDyR0

• Watch this short video to get a basic idea about the property “entropy”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQSoaiubuA0 14
Concept questions
• Describe an imaginary process that violates both the 1st and the 2nd laws
of thermodynamics.

• A home owner claims that her 5-year-old electric resistance heater has a
conversion efficiency of 100 %. Is this claim in violation of any
thermodynamic laws? Explain.

• A refrigerator has a COP of 1.5. That is, the refrigerator removes 1.5 kWh
of energy from the refrigerated space for each 1 kWh of electricity it
consumes. Is this a violation of the first law of thermodynamics? Explain.

• Can the value of COPHP be lower than unity?

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