"Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation."
The study of heat and energy transfer in materials and how it relates to the behavior and properties of materials.
Basic concepts in thermodynamics: This includes the study of energy, work, heat, and the laws of thermodynamics. Topics covered include internal energy, enthalpy, entropy, and specific heat.
Thermodynamic systems: This includes the study of different types of thermodynamic systems, such as open, closed, and isolated systems. Topics covered include state functions, state variables, and state diagrams.
Equations of state: This includes the study of equations of state such as the ideal gas law, van der Waals equation, and the compressibility factor equation. Topics covered include the relationship between pressure, temperature, and volume.
Heat and power cycles: This includes the study of heat engines, refrigerators, and heat pumps. Topics covered include Carnot cycles, Rankine cycles, Brayton cycles, and vapor compression cycles.
Phase diagrams and phase equilibria: This includes the study of the behavior of solid, liquid, and gaseous materials. Topics covered include phase transitions, phase diagrams, and thermodynamic equilibrium.
Chemical thermodynamics: This includes the study of chemical reactions and their thermodynamic properties. Topics covered include Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, and entropy of chemical reactions.
Statistical thermodynamics: This includes the study of the relationship between microscopic and macroscopic properties of materials. Topics covered include the Boltzmann distribution, partition functions, and the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.
Thermodynamics of materials: This includes the study of the thermodynamic properties of materials, such as thermal conductivity, heat capacity, and phase stability. Topics covered include material properties and the role of thermodynamics in a variety of applications such as materials science and engineering.
Applications of thermodynamics: This includes the study of thermodynamics in different fields such as engineering design, chemistry, physics, and materials science. Topics covered include various applications such as combustion, boiling, and phase transitions in materials.
Thermodynamic modeling and simulation: This includes the study of computer modeling and simulation of thermodynamic systems. Topics covered include simulation techniques, equation of state models, Gibbs energy minimization, and free energy calculations.
Classical Thermodynamics: This is the most well-known and fundamental branch of thermodynamics, it outlines the relation of heat, energy, and work.
Statistical Thermodynamics: This deals with the study of how the macroscopic properties of a material can be related to its microscopic properties.
Equilibrium Thermodynamics: As the name suggests, it deals with the thermodynamics of materials in equilibrium states.
Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics: This branch deals with the thermodynamics of materials far from equilibrium.
Chemical Thermodynamics: This evaluates the behavior of chemical reactions, including the heat associated with a chemical reaction.
Quantum Thermodynamics: It analyses the behavior of thermodynamic systems in the quantum domain.
Geometrical Thermodynamics: This focuses on the geometrical analogs of thermodynamics principles.
Informational Thermodynamics: It examines the relation between thermodynamics and information science.
Black Hole Thermodynamics: It concerns the thermodynamics of black holes and the relationship between heat and gravity.
Biological thermodynamics: In this branch, the thermodynamic principles are applied to living and biological systems.
"The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of thermodynamics which convey a quantitative description using measurable macroscopic physical quantities."
"The behavior of these quantities may be explained in terms of microscopic constituents by statistical mechanics."
"Thermodynamics applies to a wide variety of topics in science and engineering, especially physical chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering, but also in other complex fields such as meteorology."
"Historically, thermodynamics developed out of a desire to increase the efficiency of early steam engines."
"French physicist Sadi Carnot (1824) who believed that engine efficiency was the key that could help France win the Napoleonic Wars."
"Scots-Irish physicist Lord Kelvin was the first to formulate a concise definition of thermodynamics in 1854."
"German physicist and mathematician Rudolf Clausius restated Carnot's principle known as the Carnot cycle and gave the theory of heat a truer and sounder basis."
"His most important paper, 'On the Moving Force of Heat,' published in 1850, first stated the second law of thermodynamics."
"In 1865 he introduced the concept of entropy."
"In 1870 he introduced the virial theorem, which applied to heat."
"The initial application of thermodynamics to mechanical heat engines was quickly extended to the study of chemical compounds and chemical reactions."
"Chemical thermodynamics studies the nature of the role of entropy in the process of chemical reactions."
"Statistical thermodynamics, or statistical mechanics, concerns itself with statistical predictions of the collective motion of particles from their microscopic behavior."
"In 1909, Constantin Carathéodory presented a purely mathematical approach in an axiomatic formulation, a description often referred to as geometrical thermodynamics."