ASABE Technical Library - Abstract

Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version.
If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, view access and subscription options

A Thermodynamics Course for the Biological Systems Engineering Discipline

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Paper number  037046,  2003 ASAE Annual Meeting . (doi: 10.13031/2013.14239) @2003
Authors:   John S. Cundiff
Keywords:   Thermodynamics, biological engineering, biological systems engineering

A case was made for developing and teaching a thermodynamics course specifically for biological systems engineers. Approximately two-thirds of this three-semester hour course is needed to develop the basic concepts: First Law (enthalpy) and Second Law (entropy). The last third is used to present a more in-depth treatment of psychometrics and give the basis for animal energetics. The course concludes with a derivation of Gibbs free energy and application to reactions that take place at constant temperature and pressure. Students who take the course in spring semester of the sophomore year are ready to continue their study by taking physical chemistry fall semester of their junior year.

(Download PDF)    (Export to EndNotes)