Introduction to Thermodynamics for Metallurgy and Materials Science: Phase Equilibria, Ellingham Diagrams, Extraction, Corrosion, and Computational Thermodynamics

A thermodynamics textbook for metallurgists and materials engineers that shows its working.

This book develops thermodynamics from the laws through to industrial practice, in nineteen chapters and 118 figures. It is built for the reader who needs to know not only what the answer is, but why, and how far to trust it.

Every equation is derived rather than asserted. Variables are defined, units are tracked through every calculation, and each of the 95 worked examples shows the complete arithmetic. Where a value is taken from a compilation rather than derived, the book says so and says which compilation.

The development runs from the First and Second Laws, through chemical potential and solution behavior, to the construction of phase diagrams from free energy curves. It then applies that machinery to reaction equilibria, oxidation and reduction, slag-metal chemistry, extraction and refining, electrochemistry and corrosion, and finally to the iron-carbon system as an integrating case study. The closing chapter treats computational thermodynamics and the CALPHAD method, and explains what a calculated phase diagram actually rests on.

The book is equally clear about what thermodynamics cannot tell you. It gives no rates, no mechanisms, and no route from microstructure to mechanical properties, and it says so repeatedly rather than leaving the reader to discover the gap. That boundary is treated as part of the subject rather than an embarrassment.

Contents include:

Five parts across nineteen chapters, from foundations to computation

95 fully worked examples with complete calculations

Over 300 practice problems at five levels of difficulty, with answers

118 figures, all generated from the underlying thermodynamic data

Five appendices, a list of symbols, a glossary, and a bibliography annotated with what each source is good for

Suitable for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in metallurgical, materials and process engineering, and for practicing engineers who want the reasoning behind the handbook values.