Thermodynamics (ThD | SPA5219)

Please consult QMPlus for the authoritative information on this module.

Year: 2 | Semester: A | Level: 5 | Credits: 15

Prerequisites: PHY-121 and PHY-116 or equivalent courses of elementary calculus and mechanics
Lectures: 33 | Lec: 110 111 212 Tut: 412 414 (notation)
Exam: 2.5 hour written paper (80%), coursework (20%)
Practical work: none | Ancillary teaching: weekly exercises, tutorials

Course organiser: Dr Kevin Donovan | Course deputy: Dr John Dennis

Synopsis:

Temperature and equilibrium. Heat, work and internal energy; the zeroth and first laws of thermodynamics. Thermal properties of materials. Kinetic theory of gases; the Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution; equations of state; mean free path. Heat engines and reversible processes; entropy and the second law. Order and disorder; the absolute temperature scale. Free energies and Maxwell's relations. Change of state, phase equilibria and irreversible processes.

Aims:

The aim of this course is to explore how energy transformations are constrained by the Laws of Thermodynamics and how such macroscopic processes are related to microscopic kinetic phenomena at the molecular level.

Outcomes:

A student who successfully completes this course will be able to: state the four Laws of Thermodynamics describe and contrast the concepts of empirical temperature, ideal gas temperature, kinetic temperature and thermodynamic temperature; analyze reversible processes represented in a $P - V$ diagram in terms of work done and heat flows by use of the First Law of Thermodynamics; describe heat engines, heat pumps and refrigerators and calculate their figures of merit from the cyclic representation in a $P - V$ diagram; understand how the Second Law of Thermodynamics limits the efficiency of all engines and to evaluate this maximum efficiency for a Carnot engine; appreciate the macroscopic definition of entropy and relate it to disorder at the molecular level through Boltzmann's hypothesis; apply the Laws of Thermodynamics to physical processes occuring in simple fluids, ideal paramagnets, elastic substances and cavity radiation; use the mathematics of partial differentiation to derive Maxwell relations and other thermodynamic identities; derive the ideal gas law and the Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution for a gas starting from molecular kinetic assumptions; describe how diffusion and heat conduction take place at a molecular level and to express the role of the mean free path in such transport phenomena.

Recommended books:

Finn, C.B.P.
Thermal Physics (Physics and Its Applications)
Stanley Thornes, (1993)
ISBN 0-7487-4379-0
[essential]

Printed lecture notes on kinetic physics.