THERMAL CONCEPTS

Heat or thermal energy

When two materials are at different temperatures, there is a natural process of transfer of energy from
the material at the higher temperature to the material at a lower temperature. This process of transfer
of energy is said to happen by non-mechanical means.

Heat or thermal energy is the non-mechanical transfer of energy between two materials held
at different temperatures.

Internal Energy
All materials are made of atoms or molecules.
Atoms and molecules have both kinetic energy and potential energy. Kinetic energy arises due to the
translational, rotational and vibrational motion of molecules/atoms.
Potential energy arises due to the forces (of interaction) between the atoms/molecules.

Internal Energy is the total of the kinetic and potential energies of all the atoms/molecules in
the material.

Specific heat capacity

When thermal energy (heat) is added to or removed from a material, the internal energy of the material
changes.
A change in the internal energy may be a result of the change in the potential energy and/or the change
in the kinetic energy of the material. Change in kinetic energy implies changes in translational, rotational
and vibrational kinetic energies of the molecules/atoms of the material.
When heat is added to a material at a temperature other than its melting point temperature or the
boiling point temperature of the material, the resulting increase in internal energy is due to increase in
potential energy as well as the increase in kinetic energy of the molecules (translational, rotational and
vibrational) . The increase in translational kinetic energy is a result of the increased average
translational speed of the molecules/atoms. This increase alone manifests as an increase in the
temperature.

Increases potential energy

Heat supplied (Q)

Increases vibrational
kinetic energy

Increases internal
energy (U)

Increases rotational
kinetic energy
At temperatures other
than melting point or
boiling point

Increases translational
kinetic energy (results in
temperature increase T)

Thus it can be seen that a part of the heat supplied has been utilized for the rise in temperature of the
material.
Similarly we can show that heat removed from the material would result in the decrease in the potential
and kinetic energies of the molecules/atoms of the material. Decrease in kinetic energy includes the
decrease of translational kinetic energy which manifests as the decrease in temperature.
The thermal energy added to or removed from the material (Q) is related to the change in temperature
(T) by the relation,
Q is thermal energy supplied or removed
m is mass of the material
T is the change in temperature
'c' is the specific heat capacity of the material

Specific heat capacity is defined as the thermal energy required (or released) when the
temperature of 1 Kg of the substance changes by 1 degree Celsius.
Specific heat capacity is calculated from the formula

The specific heat capacity is not the same for different materials. For example the specific heat capacity
of water is 4200 Jkg-1 K-1 while that of copper is 386 Jkg-1 K-1. This means that copper requires less
thermal energy for rise in temperature than water that requires more thermal energy to have the same
rise in temperature as copper.

Change of state
Change of state refers to the process in which a material is transformed from one physical
state to another physical state (like solid to liquid, liquid to vapor/gas or liquid to solid, etc) at
a fixed temperature.
The following diagram summarizes the various change of state processes and their names:

MELTING POINT is the fixed temperature at which a solid is transformed into liquid (melting)
or vice-versa (freezing).
BOILING POINT is the fixed temperature at which a liquid is transformed into its vapor
(boiling) or vice versa (condensation).

Heating curve and cooling curve

When thermal energy is added to a material in the solid state at a constant rate, the internal energy of
the material increases. This results in one of the following:
1. There may be an increase in the temperature (if it is at a temperature other than the melting point or
the boiling point)
2. Change of state without a change in the temperature (the material should be at its melting point
temperature or the boiling point temperature)
A continuous supply of thermal energy to the material results in any one of the above change happening
to the material change of temperature without a change of state or change of state without a change
in temperature. This can be represented by a heating curve as shown in the figure below:

The first inclined part of the graph represents the solid state with increasing temperature. When the
temperature reaches the melting point, no further increase of temperature is seen, but the solid
transforms to a liquid state at the constant temperature. When all the solid is converted to liquid,

further heating results in the increase of temperature of the liquid. This is shown by the second inclined
portion of the graph. Similar interpretation can be given to the other portions of the graph.
The X-axis of the graph is labeled as "Heat added". If heat is added at a constant rate, then the X-axis
can be also labeled as "time".
The slant line of the graph represent change in temperature and the horizontal portions of the graph
represent phase changes happening at constant temperature.
The more inclined the line is, the less energy it requires to raise the temperature of the material (less
specific heat capacity).
If heat is removed at a constant rate from a material in the vapor state, a cooling curve is obtained
which appears like a mirror image of the heating curve and all the different stages reversed. The cooling
curve is shown below:

Latent heat
When a material is transformed from one state to another, thermal energy is either absorbed or
released by the material. When it is transformed from solid to liquid state or liquid to vapor
state, thermal energy is absorbed by the material. When it is transformed from vapor to liquid
state or liquid to solid state, thermal energy is released. This results in a change in the internal
energy of the material.

Latent heat is the thermal energy absorbed (required) or released by a material when

1kg of the material changes from one state to another.

The unit of latent heat is JKg-1
Latent heat is calculated using the formula,