Scribd
Upload
45 views

Chosen For Study. The Mass or Region Outside The System Is Called The

A system is defined as a quantity of matter or region in space chosen for study, with a boundary separating it from its surroundings. A system can be open or closed depending on whether mass crosses its boundary. Properties describe a system's characteristics and can be intensive, like temperature, or extensive, like total mass. A continuum approximation treats a system as homogeneous without atomic structure. Equilibrium occurs when a system's properties are balanced and unchanging.

Uploaded by

Aranya Dan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
45 views

Chosen For Study. The Mass or Region Outside The System Is Called The

A system is defined as a quantity of matter or region in space chosen for study, with a boundary separating it from its surroundings. A system can be open or closed depending on whether mass crosses its boundary. Properties describe a system's characteristics and can be intensive, like temperature, or extensive, like total mass. A continuum approximation treats a system as homogeneous without atomic structure. Equilibrium occurs when a system's properties are balanced and unchanging.

Uploaded by

Aranya Dan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 6

Systems, Surroundings and Boundary

A system is defined as a quantity of matter or a region in space


chosen for
study. The mass or region outside the system is called the
surroundings.
The real or imaginary surface that separates the system from its
surroundings
is called the boundary.
The boundary of a system can be fixed or movable.
Note that the boundary is the contact surface shared by both the
system and the surroundings.
Mathematically speaking, the boundary has zero thickness, and
thus it can neither contain any mass nor occupy any volume in
space.

Systems may be considered to be closed or open, depending on


whether a
fixed mass or a fixed volume in space is chosen for study
A closed system (also known as a control mass) consists of a fixed
amount of mass, and no mass can cross its boundary. That is, no mass
can enter or leave a closed system
But energy, in the form of heat or work, can cross the boundary; and
the volume of a closed system does not have to be fixed. If, as a
special case, even energy is not allowed to cross the boundary, that
system is called an isolated system.

An open system, or a control volume, as it is often called, is a


properly selected region in space. It usually encloses a device that
involves mass flow such as a compressor, turbine, or nozzle.
Flow through these devices is best studied by selecting the region
within the device as the control volume. Both mass and energy can
cross the boundary of a control volume.
A large number of engineering problems involve mass flow in and out of
a system and, therefore, are modeled as control volumes. A water
heater, a car radiator, a turbine, and a compressor all involve mass flow
and should be analyzed as control volumes (open systems) instead of as
control masses (closed systems).
The boundaries of a control volume are called a control surface, and
they
can be real or imaginary.

Properties of a system
Any characteristic of a system is called a property.
Properties are considered to be either intensive or extensive.
Intensive properties are those that are independent of the mass of
a system, such as temperature, pressure, and density.
Extensive properties are those whose values depend on the size
or extentof the system. Total mass, total volume, and total
momentum are some examples of extensive properties.
Extensive properties per unit mass are called specific properties.
Some examples of specific properties are specific volume (v = V/m)
and specific total energy (e = E/m).
Continuum
Matter is made up of atoms that are widely spaced in the gas phase.
Yet it is very convenient to disregard the atomic nature of a
substance and view it as a continuous, homogeneous matter with no
holes, that is, a continuum. The continuum idealization allows us to
treat properties as point functions and to assume the properties vary
continually in space with no jump discontinuities. This idealization is
valid as long as the size of the system we deal with is large relative
to the space between the molecules.

State and Equilibrium


Consider a system not undergoing any change. At this point, all the
properties can be measured or calculated throughout the entire
system, which gives us a set of properties that completely describes
the condition, or the state, of the system.
At a given state, all the properties of a system have fixed values. If
the value of even one property changes, the state will change to a
different one.
Thermodynamics deals with equilibrium states. The word
equilibrium implies a state of balance. In an equilibrium state there
are no unbalanced potentials (or driving forces) within the system. A
system in equilibrium experiences no changes when it is isolated
from its surroundings.
There are many types of equilibrium, and a system is not in
thermodynamic equilibrium unless the conditions of all the relevant
types of equilibrium are satisfied.
For example, a system is in thermal equilibrium if the temperature
is the same throughout the entire system
Mechanical equilibrium is related to pressure, and a system is in

If a system involves two phases, it is in phase equilibrium when the


mass of each phase reaches an equilibrium level and stays there.
Finally, a system is in chemical equilibrium if its chemical
composition does not change with time, that is, no chemical reactions
occur.
A system will not be in equilibrium unless all the relevant equilibrium
criteria are satisfied.

You might also like