7–3 ■ ENTROPY CHANGE OF PURE SUBSTANCES
Entropy is a property, and thus the value of entropy of a system is fixed
once the state of the system is fixed. Specifying two intensive independent
properties fixes the state of a simple compressible system, and thus the
value of entropy, as well as the values of other properties at that state. Start-
ing with its defining relation, the entropy change of a substance can be
expressed in terms of other properties (see Sec. 7–7). But in general, these
relations are too complicated and are not practical to use for hand calcula-
tions. Therefore, using a suitable reference state, the entropies of substances
are evaluated from measurable property data following rather involved com-
putations, and the results are tabulated in the same manner as the other
properties such as v,u, and h(Fig. 7–10).
The entropy values in the property tables are given relative to an arbitrary
reference state. In steam tables the entropy of saturated liquid sfat 0.01°C is
assigned the value of zero. For refrigerant-134a, the zero value is assigned
to saturated liquid at 40°C. The entropy values become negative at tem-
peratures below the reference value.
Chapter 7 | 339
The entropy change for each reservoir can be determined from Eq. 7–6
since each reservoir undergoes an internally reversible, isothermal process.
(a) For the heat transfer process to a sink at 500 K:
and
Therefore, 1.5 kJ/K of entropy is generated during this process. Noting that
both reservoirs have undergone internally reversible processes, the entire
entropy generation took place in the partition.
(b) Repeating the calculations in part (a) for a sink temperature of 750 K,
we obtain
and
The total entropy change for the process in part (b) is smaller, and therefore
it is less irreversible. This is expected since the process in (b) involves a
smaller temperature difference and thus a smaller irreversibility.
Discussion The irreversibilities associated with both processes could be
eliminated by operating a Carnot heat engine between the source and the
sink. For this case it can be shown that Stotal0.
Sgen¢Stotal 1 2.52.7 2 kJ>K0.2 kJ/K
¢Ssink2.7 kJ>K
¢Ssource2.5 kJ>k
Sgen¢Stotal¢Ssource¢Ssink 1 2.54.0 2 kJ>K1.5 kJ/K
¢Ssink
Qsink
Tsink
2000 kJ
500 K
4.0 kJ>K
¢Ssource
Qsource
Tsource
2000 kJ
800 K
2.5 kJ>K
SEE TUTORIAL CH. 7, SEC. 3 ON THE DVD.
INTERACTIVE
TUTORIAL