Thermal Physics

Thermal physics is a course that is designed to fulfil the requirements of 1 st and 2nd year BSc students studying physics. Starting from basic understanding, this course will take the students through all fundamental aspects of thermodynamics in a simple way. The first part of the course deals with the Kinetic theory of gases, that bridges the connection between macroscopic and microscopic world. In here, we have also included transport phenomenon involved in ideal gases, the theory of specific heat and behavior of real gases. In second half of the course, effort is made to understand the fundamental laws of thermodynamics and applications to various thermo-dynamical systems and processes. Additionally, a discussion on black body as a thermodynamic system has been included.INTENDED-AUDIENCE:BSc students (across CBCS platform)PRE-REQUISITES: NilINDUSTRY-SUPPORT: Nil

Week 1 :Kinetic theory of gasses: Maxwell-Boltzmann speed distribution law, average speed, RMS speed, most probable speed, pressure expression from kinetic theoryWeek 2 : Mean free path, collision probability, Fundamentals of transport phenomenaWeek 3 : Viscosity, diffusion, effusion, thermal conductivity in gasses.Week 4 : Brownian motion and its significance, Einstein’s theory of molecular diffusion, Perrin’s experiment, random walk (concept only)Week 5 : Principle of equipartition of energy, degrees of freedom, Specific heat of monoatomic, diatomic and polyatomic gasses, Specific heat of solids, Dulong-petit law, Einstein and Debye theory of specific heat of solidsWeek 6 : Real gasses, deviation from ideal gas equation, The Van-der Walls equation of state, the virial coefficients, other equation of state (elementary discussion)
Week 7 : Zeroth and 1 st law of thermodynamics, quasi static processes, work and internal energy, isothermal and adiabatic processes, elastic coefficients of matterWeek 8 : 2 nd law of thermodynamics, Entropy, Clausius’ theorem, Carnot’s theorem and Carnot’s cycle, Otto and diesel cyclesWeek 9 :Enthalpy, Helmholtz and Gibbs free energies, Maxwell’s thermodynamics relations, the TdS equations, thermodynamic equilibrium and free energies.Week 10 : Equilibrium between phases, 1 st and 2nd latent heat equations, 1 st and 2nd order phase transitions. Phase diagram and Triple point,Week 11 : Thermodynamics at triple point, Ehrenfest equations, Thermodynamic potentials across phase transition, Gibbs phase rule and simple applicationsWeek 12 : Blackbody as a thermodynamic system, 3 rd law of thermodynamics, entropy at absolute zero temperature