Thermodynamics- the Backbone of Mechanical Engineering

Thermodynamics is the most essential and most important subject in Mechanical Engineering. Many fear from thermodynamics, fell it hard and say it is non scoring subject.

But thermodynamics is essentially the most interesting subject they would ever encounter in mechanical engineering. Actually it is the fundamental of Mechanical Engineering

Mastering Thermodynamics is most important many of the subjects which come in later semesters of undergraduate course like Heat and Mass Transfer, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, Internal Combustion Engine will require fundamental knowledge of Thermodynamics.

Therefore it is definite that you must master thermodynamics before going further in mechanical engineering

In almost all engineering universities thermodynamics is introduced in the first semester itself, there the main stress is laid in understanding this basic laws of thermodynamics

It is most important that before you go and study basic laws in thermodynamics you must have complete understanding of basic concepts of thermodynamics, that is you must have the concept of system, surrounding, macroscopic and microscopic point of views in thermodynamics, you must be able to define properties and state of a substance, processes and surrounding you must be able to define energy.

Properties of pure substances is considered the most important topic that you must master . You must have introductory concept pure substance before the study of laws of thermodynamics

The best ways is to study thermodynamics is through problems, you must know how to apply theoretical concepts through problems and to do so you must study good books

I would personally recommend you to study "Fundamentals of Thermodynamics" by SONNTAG BORGNAKKE VAN WYLEN or in short Van Wylen, it is published by WYLEY.

Van Wylen is the most fundamental and most widely read book on thermodynamics; no doubt there are many other good books by many authors but I personally fell it is best for fundamentals

The best part of the book is its presentation and approach, before really introducing to thermodynamics it builds basics to study thermodynamics and this is how interest in thermodynamics arise

I recommend to go through the text first; slowly introduce yourself in reading the text twice thrice and then attempt problems, every time you read one topic you will get to know something new and try to develop an applicative approach. Try to solve as many problems you can. The problems presented in this book are real world problems, the problems concerned in engineering and development of those is most essential

You can't solve all the problems at once very time you read the text you can solve only 10-20% problems, I would recommend you to go back and study the theory first and then try to attempt further

This approach must be built in the study of thermodynamics, before going on to a new chapter you must make sure that you have studied each topic of the previous chapter and attempted at least 60-70 %

problems

This approach must be made in the study of thermodynamics, for self study I would recommend you to get answers (not solutions) of the problems you can refer to the solution only if you have tried many times to solve the problems

The problems are not very hard but are conceptual. you must know what are you doing to arrive with the answers, producing the solution is not important but understanding is important

This approach must be adopted with the study of thermodynamics and you must regularly study at lest tow hours thermodynamics and then only you will be able to complete it in 3 months