Entropy Thermodynamics

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Entropy Thermodynamics

One consequence of the second law is the development of the physical property of matter termed entropy (S). Entropy was introduced to help explain the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The change in this property is used to determine the direction in which a given process will proceed. Entropy can also be explained as a measure of the unavailability of heat to perform work in a cycle. This relates to the second law since the second law predicts that not all heat provided to a cycle can be transformed into an equal amount of work, some heat rejection must take place. The change in entropy is defined as the ratio of heat transferred during a reversible process to the absolute temperature of the system.

The second law can also be expressed as ΔS≥O for a closed cycle. In other words, entropy must increase or stay the same for a cyclic system; it can never decrease.

Entropy is a property of a system. It is an extensive property that, like the total internal energy or total enthalpy, may be calculated from specific entropies based on a unit mass quantity of the system, so that S = ms. For pure substances, values of the specific entropy may be tabulated along with specific enthalpy, specific volume, and other thermodynamic properties of interest. One place to find this ta

Specific entropy, because it is a property, is advantageously used as one of the coordinates when representing a reversible process graphically. The area under a reversible process curve on the T-s diagram represents the quantity of heat transferred during the process.

Thermodynamic problems, processes, and cycles are often investigated by substitution of reversible processes for the actual irreversible process to aid the student in a second law analysis. This substitution is especially helpful because only reversible processes can be depicted on the diagrams (h-s and T-s, for example) used for the analysis. Actual or irreversible processes cannot be drawn since they are not a succession of equilibrium conditions. Only the initial and final conditions of irreversible processes are known; however, some thermodynamics texts represent an irreversible process by dotted lines on the diagrams.