When applying the entropy balance to a closed system, it is essential to remember
the requirements imposed by the second law on entropy production: The second law
requires that entropy production be positive, or zero, in value
s: e
. 0 irreversibilities present within the system
5 0 no irreversibilities present within the s
ste
(6.26)
The value of the entropy production cannot be negative. In contrast, the change in
entropy of the system may be positive, negative, or zero:
S
2
2 S
1
:
. 0
5 0
, 0
(6.27)
Like other properties, entropy change for a process between two specified states can
be determined without knowledge of the details of the process.
6.7.2
Evaluating Entropy Production and Transfer
The objective in many applications of the entropy balance is to evaluate the entropy
production term. However, the value of the entropy production for a given process
of a system often does not have much significance by itself. The significance is
normally determined through comparison. For example, the entropy production
within a given component might be compared to the entropy production values of
the other components included in an overall system formed by these components.
By comparing entropy production values, the components where appreciable irre-
versibilities occur can be identified and rank ordered. This allows attention to be
focused on the components that contribute most to inefficient operation of the overall
system.
To evaluate the entropy transfer term of the entropy balance requires informa-
tion regarding both the heat transfer and the temperature on the boundary where
the heat transfer occurs. The entropy transfer term is not always subject to direct
evaluation, however, because the required information is either unknown or not
defined, such as when the system passes through states sufficiently far from equi-
librium. In such applications, it may be convenient, therefore, to enlarge the system
to include enough of the immediate surroundings that the temperature on the
boundary of the enlarged system corresponds to the temperature of the surround-
ings away from the immediate vicinity of the system, T
f
. The entropy transfer term
is then simply Q/T
f
. However, as the irreversibilities present would not be just for
the system of interest but for the enlarged system, the entropy production term
would account for the effects of internal irreversibilities within the original system
and external irreversibilities present within that portion of the surroundings included
within the enlarged system.
6.7.3
Applications of the Closed System Entropy Balance
The following examples illustrate the use of the energy and entropy balances for the
analysis of closed systems. Property relations and property diagrams also contribute
significantly in developing solutions. Example 6.2 reconsiders the system and end
states of Example 6.1 to demonstrate that entropy is produced when internal irrevers-
ibilities are present and that the amount of entropy production is not a property. In
Example 6.3, the entropy balance is used to determine the minimum theoretical com-
pression work.
6.7 Entropy Balance for Closed Systems 297
T > T
f
Temperature
variation
T
f
Boundary of
enlarged system
TAKE NOTE...
On property diagrams,
solid lines are used for inter-
nally reversible processes.
A dashed line signals only
that a process has
occurred between initial
and final equilibrium states
and does not define a path
for the process.
A
A
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