Olivier Cleynen’s free 10-chapter thermodynamics textbook covers closed/open systems, cycles, entropy, and steam/air power cycles with 59 worked examples.
Key Takeaways
Covers the full undergrad thermodynamics sequence: ideal gas, phase changes, Rankine, Otto, Diesel, and turbojet cycles.
59 step-by-step worked examples and 96 problems with solutions included alongside the core chapters.
Appendices include Steam Tables sourced from freesteamtables.com and SI unit conversion references.
Short historical explorations connect Carnot, Boltzmann, and other foundational ideas to their engineering impact.
Available free online; a print edition exists for roughly 50 EUR with the author earning under 15% of cover price.
Hacker News Comment Review
Commenters noted the book under-covers equations of state (SAFTs, cubics, multiparameter EOS) and suggest pointing readers to CoolProp for custom fluid property generation.
The pricing breakdown sparked discussion: author earns under 15% on a ~50 EUR print copy, with printing estimated at 2-5 EUR and the remainder absorbed by publisher and retailer margins.
The payment processor takes 25% of author earnings, raising questions about platform choice for independent academic authors.
Notable Comments
@alan-stark: asks for reading on thermodynamics-to-ML links, noting TD ideas appear in diffusion models, VAEs, and neural net training dynamics.
@ginkgotree: quotes Goodstein’s States of Matter intro on Boltzmann and Ehrenfest, both of whom died by suicide while working on statistical mechanics.
