Addis Ababa University

Addis Ababa Institute of Technology

School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Engineering Thermodynamics I

Assignment 1
Part I

1. What is energy? Distinguish between energy and power.

2. Make a list of the different forms of energy that you encounter in your day-to-day lives.
3. Make of list of activities that involve the conversion of energy in your day-to-day lives.
4. How do you measure temperature? Make a list of temperature measurement devices that
you use. Explain how they work.
5. Reading assignment: Section 1-2 Importance of Dimension and Units (Page 3-10) from
Cengel Y. A., Bole M.A., Kanonglu M., “Thermodynamics- An Engineering
Approach”, McGraw Hill, 9th Edition, 2019

Part II

6. A large fraction of the thermal energy generated in the engine of a car is rejected to the air
by the radiator through the circulating water. Should the radiator be analyzed as a closed
system or as an open system? Explain.

7. A pressure gage connected to a tank reads 500 kPa at a location where the atmospheric
pressure is 94 kPa. Determine the absolute pressure in the tank.
8. The piston of a vertical piston–cylinder device containing a gas has a mass of 60kg and a
cross-sectional area of 0.04m2, as shown in the figure below. The local atmospheric
pressure is 0.97bar, and the gravitational acceleration is 9.81m/s 2.
a. Determine the pressure inside the cylinder.
b. If some heat is transferred to the gas and its volume is doubled, do you expect the
pressure inside the cylinder to change?
9. A gas is contained in a vertical, frictionless piston–cylinder device. The piston has a mass
of 4kg and a cross-sectional area of 35cm2. A compressed spring above the piston exerts a
force of 60N on the piston. If the atmospheric pressure is 95kPa, determine the pressure
inside the cylinder.