Chapter 8: Second Law Analysis of Open Systems

The second law and its important consequences were introduced in chapters 6 and 7 where the emphasis was on applications to closed systems. In this chapter we shall apply the entropy balance equation to open systems or control volumes with the aim of developing the tools for availability or exergy analysis of such systems. More recently, this type of performance evaluation of engineering systems has been called second law analysis, although it is the combination of the first and second laws that forms the basis of exergy analysis and the second law efficiency.