THERMODYNAMIC QUANTITIES AND THEIR INTERRELATIONSHIPS 5

(Hybrid) converters and electric arc furnaces a discussion on the obsolete Bessemer
process has been included to highlight the contributions of Henry Bessemer whose
invention laid the foundation for the modern steelmaking processes. Readers may also
raise questions on SI units not being used uniformly throughout the book. I want to
stress here that based on my 40 years of teaching experience I strongly feel that sol-
ving problems in different units will make students mature with respect to conversion
from one system to another. As some basic knowledge of under-graduate level chem-
ical/metallurgical thermodynamics is necessary to understand the worked out pro-
blems in different chapters, a brief account on thermodynamic quantities and their
interrelationships has been included in this chapter.

1.1 THERMODYNAMIC QUANTITIES AND THEIR

INTERRELATIONSHIPS

1.1.1 General Thermodynamics

First law of thermodynamics: Energy can neither be produced nor destroyed in a
system of constant mass, although it can be converted from one form to another.
According to the first law of thermodynamics, the total heat content of the system,
called enthalpy (H) is expressed as:
H = U + pv 11
that is, heat content (enthalpy) = internal energy (U) + energy term, dependent on the
state of the system (pv), where p and v are, respectively, the pressure and volume of the
system.
Heat capacity at constant volume and constant pressure: Heat capacity, C may be
defined as the ratio of the heat, Q absorbed by a system to the resulting increase in
temperature (T2 − T1), that is, ΔT. Since the heat capacity usually varies with
temperature,
Q q
C = lim = 12
T1 T2 ΔT dT

where q = quantity of heat, dT = small rise in temperature.

At constant volume, qv = ΔUv
dUv ∂U
∴ Cv = = 13
dT ∂T v

Hence, the heat capacity of a system at constant volume is equal to the rate of increase
of internal energy content with temperature at constant volume.
Similarly, at constant pressure,

qp ∂H
Cp = = 14
dT ∂T p