Exergy and Second Law Efficiency

This course covers the fundamental concepts of exergy and second law efficiency in thermodynamics. It begins with an introduction to exergy, explaining its importance in estimating the efficiency of a process and its relationship with entropy. For instance, the course uses the example of a tank of air at a certain pressure and temperature to illustrate how exergy changes during different processes. The course then delves into the calculation of exergy and its transfer in a system due to work, heat, and mass interactions. Finally, the course explores the concept of second law efficiency, using practical examples of non-flow, steady flow, and cyclic processes. It also discusses the application of the second law of thermodynamics to various steady flow processes, such as determining the mass flow rate of steam required in a feed water heater.

This course has been developed by Prof. V. Raghavan from IIT Madras for NPTEL. It is now accessible through Ansys Innovation Space courtesy of the partnership between Ansys and NPTEL, under the CC BY-SA license. For more details, visit https://nptel.ac.in/courses/112106419.