Product Description
Presenting a comprehensive and thorough treatment of thermodynamics while still retaining an engineering perspective, this updated edition contains revised contents and chapters, changes in table listings and equations, as well as the addition of simpler homework problems…. More >>
Fundamentals of Thermodynamics
Tags: fundamentals of thermodynamics, homework problems, perspective
#1 by moufid hilal on June 26, 2010 - 8:46 am
I am the professor of Thermodynamics in the Faculty of Mechanical and
Electrical Engineering Damascus University. I didn’t read the
whole text of the book yet, but I skimmed the unread chapters
through. I decided to make it my table book and read it carefully,
because I concluded that the book is valuable and will help me in
teaching the course of thermodynamics to my students.
Advantages of
the book:
-Inclusive scientific content for undergraduate
level,
-Four preparatory chapters,
-Attractive, easy and
understandable text and illustrations (figures),
-A lot of examples
which are perfectly inserted into the text,
-Large amount of
problems follow every chapter,
-Comprehensive appendix and
comprehensive table of contents.
Disadvantages:
-Chapter 11 (power
and refrigeration systems) dose not contain a paragraph specified for
ideal dual cycle of internal combustion engines, which is a common
cycle, special cases of which, are Diesel and Otto cycles. All modern
Diesel engines work according to dual cycle.
- chapter 11 and the
scientific material before it, but following definitions of entropy
and Ts diagram dose not contain a paragraph about the graphical
comparing of thermal efficiencies of ideal heat engines’
cycles. Such paragraph would activate the analyzing of power systems.
Dr. Moufid Hilal
…
END
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by John R. Keller on June 26, 2010 - 9:15 am
Over the past twenty-five years, I have used this book (or its earlier editions) as a student, teaching assistant, adjunct professor and as a practicing engineer and have found that I used this book more than the dozen or so books that I have on thermodynamics. This introductory book on thermodynamics contains many chapters devoted to the basic principles such as defining the state and the definition and determination of work. Later chapters include cycles, combustion, equilibrium and compressible flow. It is a very valuable reference for anyone involved in thermodynamics, because it contains a good overview of all the major topics and concerns.
Some of the reviews provided by current students are appropriate. The authors sometime assume that the first-time reader has a much stronger background than they do and or that can remember everything in the previous chapters. As a result, the sample problems are lacking in a detailed explanation of the concepts leaving the reader confused; however, once the reader understands thermodynamics, these sample problems can be a great help.
Rating: 4 / 5
#3 by Kyle League on June 26, 2010 - 11:25 am
This book assumes you memorize everything they say once. In an example in chapter six, they went from V/2 to V/2 x 788 x 37.12 without saying why, without using symbols to show what the numbers represent, without even including units to help you figure out what they are doing. It turned out to be a conversion mentioned on a page in a chapter, not in any of the tables or indexes for conversion. Trying to follow their train of thought is like trying to walk up a flight of stairs with three foot high steps.
Rating: 1 / 5
#4 by Venk on June 26, 2010 - 12:58 pm
This is one really good book on Thermodynamics…ideal for self study.The fundamentals have been explained lucidly and never do the authors obfuscate the presentation with needless information.The treatment of both the first and second law is great….this is one textbook wherein the concept of entropy has been explained very well,both from a mathematical and a physical view point.As pointed out by an earlier reviewer,the book is a bit short on example problems,but again,there are a number of great exercise problems which test our understanding of the subject…the authors have done a great job in according a physical insight into this most interesting field-something I was’nt able to get from other texts..
Go Get it..specially if you are an undergrad wanting to learn up some thermodynamics!!
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by J. O'Gallie on June 26, 2010 - 1:55 pm
Hey,
I needed this book for Thermo 1. This book is ridiculous. Perhaps it’s good as a reference – I wouldn’t know because I need to LEARN thermo first. Anyways, this book sucks at teaching thermodynamics. The best way I learn is by doing problems that cover the material. If I come across something I don’t understand, I like to go back and check example problems. Indeed, there are example problems galore in this book. But they are completely different from the homework problems. The example problems tend to be simplistic and even in Chapter 6 they tend to emphasize concepts and techniques that were taught in Chapter 2. The homework problems at the end then go into great depth with the new material and it’s just ridiculous trying to understand it without an example problem which is actually helpful. Please note that, for me, this lack of instruction was compounded by a professor who quite literally taught straight from the book – perhaps you will have more luck. This book is definitely not a student friendly book.
Cheers
Rating: 1 / 5