Work and heat interactions

Work and heat are the two basic interactions in thermodynamics via which energy is transferred
between system and surrounding, or from/to the working fluid in a energy conversion device.
Mechanical work is defined as the product of force and displacement, or the product of torque and
angular motion in a rotating set up. Consider the air flow in a axial turbine that drives the
compressor in an aircraft engine. Each blade is like an airfoil in cross-section and the flow of air
over the blade generates a force (lift force). The resultng torque at the axis of the turbine, multiplied
by the angular roation, gives the work done by the air (system) on the turbine blades (surrounding).
This is the work output of a turbine that is equal to the work input in the compressor.

A common example in thermodynamics is that of a electric motor powered by a battery that is

driving a fan. If we consider the battery and the motor as our system, then the torque provided by
the system to the fan (part of the surrounding) times the rotation of the fan is equal to the work done
by the system. An alternate system that includes the battery, motor and the fan, would still be doing
work on the surroundings, which now consist of the air flowing through the fan. The work done by
the fan is increasing the speed or the kinetic energy of the air.

There are other cases of work interaction, which may not involve a force or a torque, for example, a
battery discharging through a resistor. The electric work done by the battery (system) on the resistor
(surrounding), in this case, reduces the energy of the system. Alternately, a system consisting of the
battery and the resistor generates heat that is transferred to the surrounding air. Energy of the
system once again decreases, but due to heat transfer, in stead of the work interaction. Both work
and heat transfers are equal in magnitude and they result in identical change in the chemical energy
stored in the battery. The resistor in this example can be replaced by a motor that draws identical
current from the battery. The situation is then similar to the earlier example, although our definition

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of the system (the battery) is slightly different. The battery power can now be used to raise a weight
(mg) through an elevation (z) to give an equivalent mechanical work = mgz. The potential energy of
the weight is increased in this process.

In thermodynamics, a general definition of work encompasses all different kinds of work

interaction – mechanical, electrical, etc. Work is said to be done by/on the system if the sole effect
on the surrounding can be reduced to the raising of a weight (through a distance against
gravitational force). A work interaction invariably happens between the system and its surrounding
through the system boundary. In some scenarios, identifying a work interaction is not straight
forward. This is especially true for systems involving non-mechanical components. For mechanical
systems, like any kind of engine, and specifically, the gas turbine engine, the standard definition of
work given at the beginning of the section (in terms of force and distance) suffices well.

We will now work out the details of some of the commonly encountered work interaction in aircraft
engine applications.

1. Displacement work = pdV work

If we take the gas enclosed in a piston cylinder arrangement as our system, then the work done by
the gas (as it expands) in displacing the piston is called the displacement work. A small motion of
the piston of area A through a distance dL is equal to the work done dW = p A dL = p dV, where p
is the pressure of the gas and dV is the change in its volume. The work done can be easily equated
to raising of a weight mg = pA by a distance dz = dL, if the piston is connected to an appropriate
arrangement through a pulley. If the system goes from a state 1 to 2, then the total work done is
given by the integral of p dV. The initial and final states can be located on a p-V diagram, and work
done is the area under the curve. The work done is therefore a path function, and its value depends
on the path taken by the system – either adiabatic, or isobaric followed by isochoric, or vice versa.
Mathematically, path functions like work are called imperfect integral, and are denoted by dW with
a crossed d. By comparison, point functions, like p and T, have perfect differential, i.e. integration
of dp from 1 to 2 is p2-p1, independent of the path taken by the process 1-2. in practise the total
work done in a process from state 1 to state 2 is often denoted by W_1-2, signifying the process and
the path taken by the process.

The integration along the path 1-2 to compute the

displacement work is possible only if the process is quasi-
static. Each intermediate state between the end points have
to be uniquely defined, i.e. the system has to be in
equilibrium at every point in the process. If not in
equilibrium, the properties of the system, if isolated at any
intermediate point, will change in time and hence not
unique. A process that is not quasi-steady, and hence the
system is out of equilibrium, is usually denoted by a dashed
line in the p-V diagram.

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Displacement work is often called reversible work, why? Does it mean that the piston-cylinder
arrangement used to define pdV work has to be without any frictional or other dissipative effects?

Sign convention: The work done by the material inside our system is taken to be positive, and the
work done by the surrounding on the system is negative. This helps us to keep track of the direction
of flow of work transfer and their effect in increasing or decreaing the energy of a system. In the
piston cylinder exmaple, it is easy to see that the work done when the gas expands and pushes the
piston is to be taken positive. By comparison, if we push the piston back to compress the gas, it will
be a negative work done on the system.

2. Flow work

Consider a nozzle that is used to generate a high-speed jet exhaust in an aircraft engine. A
simplified nozzle is a converging duct, where air enters at high pressure and is accelerated to high
velocity. Pressure of the gas decreases in this process and it is usually called expansion through a
nozzle (opposite of compression that increases the pressure). It is a flow-through device operating
under steady state condition, where fluid continuously enters at station 1 and leaves at station 2,
without any accumulation of mass in the nozzle.

The flow is caused by the pressure difference between the inlet and the exit stations. If we consider
the region enclosed by the nozzle as our control volume, then the high pressure at the entrance (p1)
pushes the fluid into the nozzle. Let us assume that fluid of volume dV1 enters the nozzle in a small
time dt. If A1 is the cross-sectional area, then dV1 = A1*dL1, where dL1 is the thickness of the
slizce of fluid matter entering the nozzle. Now, if we consider an imaginary piston of area A1
displacing the fluid by distance dL1 in time dt. The displacement work done by the piston is equal
to p1 dV1. In the absebce of our imaginary piston, this work is done by the high pressure fluid
immediately upstream of the inlet station, and is called the flow work – the work done by the fluid

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itself to drive the flow through the device.

If we write in terms of the specific volume of the fluid, as is done for many flow-through devices,
dV1 = v1*dm, where v1 is the volume per unit mass and dm is the mass of the fluid entering the
CV. Then the flow work done at the inlet is

Similarly, at the outlet, the work done by the fluid inside the control volume to push a part of the
flow out of the nozzle is

where p2 and v2 are the pressure and specific volume of the fluid at the exit station. The mass of
fluid entering and exiting in time dt is equal to dm at both ends, and this is a consequence of
conservation of mass for a steady state process. In the special case of incompressible flow, the
specific volume or the density of the fluid does not change appreciably, i.e. v1 = v2 and thus we can
show that the volume of the fluid dV1 = v1*dm entering is identical to the volume of the fluid dV2
= v2*dm leaving the control volume.

In general, the flow work in a flow-through device is written as dW_flow = p*v*dm, or the flow
work per unit mass is simply pv, and we will encounter this at several places in this course. If we
follow the sign convention for work done, the work done by the fluid in the control volume, i.e. in
pushing the flow out at the exit station, is taken to be positive. By the same logic, the work done by
the fluid outside the control volume that pushes the flow into the nozzle is to be taken negative. The
net flow work per unit mass of the fluid flowing through the nozzle is then

A simple flow-through device like a nozzle shows an interesting parallel between the control
volume framework and the system/surrounding approach. If we consider the mass of fluid filling
up the nozzle at a given instant of time, and add to it the slice of fluid that would enter the nozzle in
the next dt time interval to make our system (marked by red dashed line in the figure below). At a
later time t+dt, the same fixed mass of fluid, initially identified as the system, has changed its shape
and size, and has moved with the flow. It now extends downstream of the exit station, in addition to

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exactly filling up the space inside the nozzle (identified by the orrange line in the figure). Now, the
work interactions between this system and its surrounding happens because of the motion of its
boundaries. The work done is equal to the force acting on the bounding surfaces times the distance
traveled by the respective boundary. It is easy to see that the work done at the inlet is equal to that
given earlier in the control volume framework in terms of the pressure, area and distance travelled
by the inlet boundary. Similarly, the work done at the exit station is related to the pressure exerted
by the fluid just upstream of the outlet boundary.

3. Shaft work

The work done by rotating machinery to energise the fluid inside a system is called shaft work.
Examples can be as simple as the ceiling fan in our rooms or the axial compressor in a gas turbine
engine. The rotating machine usually consists of blades mounted on a shaft and the shaft is powered
by an external source, like a battery or electric power supply to a ceiling fan, or the turbine placed
after the combustor of an aircraft engine that provides the power to the shaft that goes into the
compressor.

If we were to calculate the energy interactions taking place in an axial compressor, we start by
defining the control volume to enclose the entire device, with low-pressure fluid entering on the left
and fluid at high pressure exiting to the right. The main function of a compressor is to energize the
fluid by doing shaft work on it. The work interaction takes place at the boundaries of the control
volume. There will be flow work, as expected, to drive the flow through the device. But the more
important work interaction in this example, happens where the control surface cuts through the shaft
of the compressor. The shaft is rotating under the effect of the torque provided by the turbine, and
the equivalent work = torque times angular rotation is being delivered to the fluid inside the control
volume. A shaft power is defined as the rate of work done by the rotating shaft and is a product of
the torque and the angular velocity of the shaft. More often than not, we will be describing a
compressor in terms of the time rate of flow of air through it, and the shaft power is more relevant
than shaft work for such a steady state analysis.

We had earlier described the work done in a compressor or turbine in terms of the aerodynamic
forces exerted by the fluid on the blades. The blades have airfoil cross-section, and their shape
varies from the base (hub) to the tip of each blade. The geometry of the blades also change from one
stage to another. Calculating the aerodynamic forces on individual blade, and that too on the
hundreds of such blades is very complicated. Fortunately, such effort is not required in order to
perform the control volume analysis of a comrpessor or a turbine. The net effect of all these blade
forces is the work transmitted by the shaft. In fact, all the blades are internal to the control volume,
i.e. they do not cross the bounding surface, and hence do not contribute to the calculation of work
interaction between the control volume and its surrounding. The shaft work is thus an easy and
effective way to quantify the work done on/by the fluid in a control volume or a system.

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Conceptually, shaft work is often denoted by a wheel attached to a rotating shaft, conveniently
ignoring all the details of the internal working of the hundreds of blades.

Is it true that work interactions and heat interactions have to happen always across the boundary
of a system or a control volume? Can we think of exceptions to this.

Heat Transfer

Energy transfer between system or control volume and its surrounding is called heat transfer or heat
interaction if it occurs because of a temperature difference across the boundary. Heat, as we all
know, flows from a higher temperature body to a lower temperature body. There are three modes
of heat transfer – conduction that occurs as a result of physical contract between the hot and cold
bodies, convection occurs due to fluid flow and the heat carried away by the flow from a hot region
to a cold region, and radiation, which does not require a medium for heat transfer, either solid or
fluid, and it occurs via electromagnetic waves. We will study these different modes of heat transfer
further towards the end of the course, where we will also learn the equations that quantify the
amount of heat flux, and the material properties that determine the rate of heat flow. We will also
take up some calculations of heat flux at that point. Currently, we will only understand heat
interaction conceptually and how it leads to transfer of energy across the system boundaries.

Heat transfer is most important when we have a very hot gas, for example in the combustor of a
gas turbine engine, where the high-energy air from compressor enters from the left, fuel is injected,
mixed and burned and the hot combustion products exit from the right. The gas temperature can be
in the range of 1700-1800 deg C in the combustor, and there is substantial amount of heat transfer
through the combustor walls to the outside air (surrounding the engine) that is at freestream
conditions, say 20 deg C. The heat transfer in the combustor wall is due to conduction, whereas the
outside flow takes away the heat via convection. There can even be small amount of radiative heat
transfer if the combustor walls get very hot, but they are usually cooled actively so that the
temperature remains within material limits.

We have defined mechanical work as a product of force and displacement, as a combination of

cause and effect. The force is the cause and is often due to pressure difference that results in motion
or change in position as the effect. On similar lines, heat transfer can be written as the product of
temperature difference i.e. the cause and the change in entropy of the material, as the effect. We
will learn, at a later stage, that heat transfer dQ = T*dS, just as work transfer can be written as dW
= p*dV. The entropy, denoted by S, is to be defined and discussed more when we get to the second
law of thermodynamics. We also notice the crossed d used to denote the fractional heat transfer,
which is representative of an imperfect integral, once again just like the differential of work. Heat
transfer is also a path function, and not a point function. The amount of heat transfered in a process

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depends on the path followed, and thus on the intermediate states between the end points of the
process. We also use a notation Q_1-2 to donote the total amount of heat interaction in a process
where the system goes from state 1 to 2.

We will follow the sign convention that the heat transfered to the system or control volume is
positive, such that it adds to the energy inside. By the same argument, heat transfered from the
system to the outside surrounding is taken to be negative. A process in which no heat transfer takes
place across the boundary of the system, i.e. the walls are perfectly insulated, is called an adiabatic
process. An adiabatic wall is thus impermeable to heat flow, whereas a diathermal wall permits the
flow of heat. In reality, no process is perfectly adiabatic, but it could be a fair assumption in cases
(for example, an axial compressor) where the amount of heat leakage through the walls is small
because of the relatively small temperature difference between the air inside the compressor and the
outside ambient air. This is very true in the initial stages of the compressor. The pressure and
temperature rises through the compressor stages, so that there can be non-negligible heat loss in the
later stages. However, the amount of heat transfer is overall small compared to the other changes in
energy and work interactions occurring in the device.

The situation in an axial turbine in an aircraft engine is somewhat different, where the combustion
products entering the first few rows of blades are extremely hot, and can actually cause the blades to
melt. The temperature felt by the blade tips is in fact higher than that in the combustion chamber.
The turbine inlet temperature is one of the critical design parameters of an aircraft engine, and it is
intimately linked to the choice of material that is used to make the blades. In addition, the turbine
blades are often actively cooled by passing coolant fluid through the blades, and other mechanisms.
As you can imagine, cooling the turbine blades rotating at high speed is much more difficult than
cooling the stationary walls of the combustion chamber, and for that matter the walls of nozzle and
afterburners.

Energy and enthalpy

Energy can be stored in different forms in a given material. They are broadly categorized into
macroscopic and microscopic modes. The macroscopic modes correspond to those which can be
directly sensed by us, and the two prominent examples are kinetic and potential energies. Kinetic
energy is due to the motion of the material and is computed as the product of mass and velocity
squared divided by 2. Kinetic energy is important in aircraft engine operation, as it is the change in
kinetic energy of the gas, relative to freestream, is what directly contributes to the thrust generated
by the engine. On the other hand, potential energy of a system is due to its elevation (against
gravity) and is given by mgz, with m being the mass of the system, z is the elevation and g is the
acceleration due to gravity. In the majority of aircraft engine applications, we neglect the potential
energy of the system or control volume. This is done irrespective of whether the engine is
operational during take off (on ground) or flying at cruise altitude (30,000 ft). This is because the
change in potential energy of the gas as it passes through the engine is negligible compared to the
changes in kinetic or other forms of energy. The same is true for aerodynamic analysis of airfoils,
wings and even the entire aircraft.

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Microscopic modes of energy are those which are stored in the atoms and molecules of the gas
(system). They can be translational energy due to the random motion of the particles, specifically
the rectilinear motion of the center of mass of the gas molecules. Energy is also stored in the
rotational motion of the molecules, and is given in terms of the moment of inertia and angular
velocity. The molecules also have vibrational energy due to vibration of atoms in a molecule with
respect to each other. Obviously, if the gas in our system is monoatomic, then it cannot have
rotational or vibrational energy modes. But, they do have nuclear and electronic energy – the first is
due to the binding forces that keep the protons and neutron together in the nucleus of the atoms, and
the second is due to the spin and rotation of the electrons about the nucleus. Finally, energy is also
stored in the chemical bonds between different atoms in a molecule, and the energy is released
when the bond is broken, for example, when the molecule dissociates into atoms.

Figure: Different internal energy modes: (a) translational, (b) rotational,

(c) vibrational, (d) nuclear, (e) electronic and (f) chemical.

All these different microscopic modes of energy together form the internal energy of the gas,
denoted by U.

where N is the total number of atoms/molecules in the gas (our system) and the terms inside the
bracket represent the energies per atom or molecule in the different internal energy modes. Internal
energy is an extensive property and the corresponding intensive property is called the specific
internal energy (u = U/m), per unit mass of the system, with units J/kg in SI system.

The enthalpy of a system (substance) is defined as h = u + pv, a sum of the internal energy and the
flow work. Here all the quantities are written per unit mass. Enthalpy of a gas is the amount of
internal energy stored in its molecules plus its capacity to do flow work. It is therefore a true
measure of the energy in a flowing gas, and is commonly used in aerospace application, specifically
in gas turbine engine analysis.

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Specific heat

The amount of heat required to raise the temeprature of a unit mass of a substance by a unit rise in
temperature is called its specific heat. Here heat is transferred to the material, which is taken to be
our system.

Heat transfer is a path function, and therefore specific heat is dependent on the type of process. For
gases, if the heat addition is done in an isochoric process, then we get the specific heat c_v at
constant volume, and if the process is isobaric, then we get the specific heat c_p at constant
pressure.

It can be shown using first law of thermodynamics that

Both c_v and c_p are properties of the system, since u, h, T, p and v are all properties of the gas. An
ideal gas has constant values of specific heats, which are given in terms of the specific gas constant
R = R_universal / Mol. wt. And the ratio of specific heats gamma = c_p/c_v.

For air, Mol. wt. = 28.97 and R = 287.1 J/kg.K and gamma = 1.4 at normally encountered pressure
and temperature. The quantity gamma depends on the number of independent modes of energy (n)
in the gas molecules, gamma = n+1/n. At room temperature, we have n = 5 (corresponding to three
translational and two rotational modes) and gamma = 1.4. At higher temperatures, as additional
modes of internal energy are activated, we have higher n and lower gamma. At temperatures typical
of combustion chamber in a gas turbine engien and later in the turbine, we often use a value of
gamma = 1.2 which is more representative of the high-temepraure properties of the post-
combustion gases.

Zeroth law of thermodynamics

Consider a thermometer initially at room temperature (30 deg C). When it is brought in contact with
our body (38 deg C), there will be heat transfer to the thermometer that will raise its temperature
and the mercury column will get longer. This will continue until it reaches thermal equilibrium, at
which point the mercury column length stops changing and we record the temperature against the
pre-calibrated scale. So, thermal equilibrium is essential for measurement of temperature, in this
simple example, and in any other scenario.

The zeroth law of thermodynamics relates to thermal equilibrium between different bodies and
helps identify temperature as the property that characterizes thermal equilibrium. The statement of
this law reads as – “if body A is in thermal equilibrium with body B, and if A is separately in
thermal equilibrium with body C, then the two bodies B and C are also in thermal equilibrium.” The
statement is as trivial as saying in mathematics – if A=B and B=C, then B=C, but it turns out to be
most fundamental of all thermodynamic laws. It defines temperature and forms the basis for

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thermometry, the science of measuring temperature. In other words, we cannot define a unique
property called temperature if this law is not valid, and without temperature, we cannot quantify
energy, and without energy, all the laws of thermodynamics are useless.

To illustrate the importance of the zeroth law, we create an example to violate it. We start with a
container of boiling water, and dip a piece of metal rod in it. Both the water (body A) and the metal
rod (body B) reach thermal equilibrium with each other after some time. The two are then isolated,
so that they maintain their thermodynamic states. A third body C, a mercury thermometer, is
brought in contact with the boiling water, and as it reaches thermal equilibrium with the body A, the
thermometer shows an extension of the mercury column to, say, 3 inches. Let us not define a
temperature yet!

The thermometer C is then separately brought in contact with the metal rod B, and let's say that the
mercury column extension happens to change to 6 inches on reaching thermal equilibrium with the
body B. This violates zeroth law, as it would entail no change in the mercury column extension C
when taken from A to B, if the law was actually valid. The bodies B and C would have been in
equilibrium then. Thus, the two bodies (A=water and B=metal rod) do not have the same
characteristic that we call temperature, even though they are supposed to be in thermal equilibrium.

On the other hand, if heat is taken away from the metal rod until the mercury column shows an
extension of 3 inches that is equal to that of body A (water), then thermal equilibrium between the
boiling water and the metal rod does not hold any more. Even though the mercury columns are
identical when separately bought in contact with A and B, the two bodies do not share the common
characteristic that quantifies their energy, and a unique temperature cannot be defined. What would
you call the 3” extension of the mercury column? – the temperatureof the boiling water or the new
(reduced) temperature of the metal rod?

It is for this reason that this law is placed ahead of all the other laws of thermodynamics. It came
into existence after the first law was known, and the statement is so natural and obvious, that its
significance was not realized initially. But, when it was clear that nothing else is possible in
thermodynamics without this statement being true, it had to placed ahead of the other laws, and
hence the name Zeroth law of thermodynamics. Its significance in nothing but zero!

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First law of thermodynamics

The first law of thermodynamics is nothing but a statement of conservation of energy. Energy can
either be stored in a material or gas (system), or energy can be in transit, in the form of work or heat
interactions between the system and its surroundings. In practical terms, this law governs the
transformation of energy stored in a system into useful work, or how heat can be added to the
system to increase its energy, which is then converted into work. In an aircraft engine scenario, we
are mostly concerned about mechanical work, either in a compressor or turbine, or the overall thrust
produced by the engine. Heat addition is primarily through burning of fuel.

We will first go through the form of the law that applies to systems, i.e. fixed mass of fluid. Later,
the law will be modified to a form that is suitable for control volume analysis. For a closed system
(no change in mass) undergoing a thermodynamic process, the first law of thermodynamics is
written in terms of the heat (Q_i) and work (W_j) interactions during the process.

or simply,

where the summation is written to include all work and heat transfers between the system and the
surrounding, keeping track of proper sign convention for each interaction. \Delta E = E2 – E1 is the
change in the total energy of the system from one state to another. Following the sign convention
described earlier, a positive quantity of heat added to the system and a negative amount of work
done by the surroundings on the system will increase its energy.

The total energy of the system is a sum of its kinetic and potential energy, with the internal energy
stored in its atoms and molecules, and other forms, like electric and magnetic energies. For a system
at rest, like the gas in a piston-cylinder arrangement, kinetic energy is zero and there is no change in
its potential energy. We then replace E with U, and the mathematical statement of first law becomes

where dW encompasses all kinds of work interactions between the system and the surroundings,
including pdV work, flow work, shaft work, electric work and so on. Note the imperfect differential
used for heat and work transfers, while a perfect differential for the energy of the system. Left hand
side is a combination of two path function, but the net effect is a point function that is independent
of the path, and is uniquely determined by the end points of the process.

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For a system undergoing a cyclic process, the start and end states are identical and the mathematical
statement of first law is simply,

The net work done by the system during the entire cyclic process is equal to the net heat transferred
to it, with no change in the energy stored in the material (gas). In fact, the law was originally
proposed in this form applicable to a cycle, by James Joule in 1843 by conducting a very simple
experiment. Joule was mainly trying to establish the connection between work and heat, which was
far from clear at that point in time. Although it seems almost obvious to us now, the equivalence of
mechanical work and heat flow was a major hurdle during the early stages of development. Joule’s
work was a major breakthrough in showing that mechanical work can be converted to heat and vice-
versa.

We will look at a set up that is essentially the same as Joule’s paddle wheel experiment. It consists
of water in a container with paddle wheels to stir the water. The paddle wheels are connected to
weights via pulleys and the container is kept insulated from the surroundings. As the weights are
lowered through a carefully-measured height, the paddle wheels rotate and stir the water in the
container. We thus do work on our system (water) which is equal to the change in potential energy
of the weights. There is no heat transfer in this step. We now let the water settle down, the stirring
motion is brought to rest by the effect of friction, which in turn heats up the water; we can measure
the increase in temperature of the water, and call it the change in its internal energy. Joule didn’t
care about the energy as such. He wanted to convert this into a flow of heat, by immersing the water
and its container in an ice bath – a large vessel consisting of melting ice. The temperature of the
water is allowed to fall until it comes back to its original value, before the paddle wheel work was
done. The amount of ice melted during this process can be measured and thus the value of heat
transferred between the water and the ice bath is quantified.

If we repeat this process for a number of different weights falling through different heights, and plot
the work done or the change in potential energy of the weight against the heat transferred to the ice
bath, we will get a straight line. We now know that the two will be equal, i.e. one Joule (= 1 N.m)
of work done will result in one Joule of heat transferred, if there are no leakages. But then, Joule
didn’t have this piece of knowledge, neither did he have the unit Joule (named after him, much after
his first law of thermodynamics) to measure both work and heat. He measured the slope of the
curve and proposed a constant of proportionality.

Work done (in ft.lbm) = 778.16 x Heat transfer (Btu)

On the left hand side, we have the mechanical unit of force times displacement and the right hand
side is the traditional (English) unit of heat.
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