Mechanical Technoloy

Lecture 6
Laws of perfect gases
Methods of heating and Expanding
Gases and Vapors…. Examples

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 Specific heats
 The specific heat is the energy required to raise the
temperature of a unit mass of a substance by one degree C.
 Liquids and solids have one specific heat.
 A gas is having two distinct specific heats. A gas may be
heated either at constant volume or at constant pressure.
 Physically, the specific heat at constant volume cv can be
viewed as the energy required to raise the temperature of
the unit mass of a substance by one degree as the volume
is maintained constant.
 The energy required to do the same as the pressure is
maintained constant is the specific heat at constant pressure
cp

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 Specific heats

 The specific heat at constant pressure cp is

always greater than cv because at constant
pressure the system is allowed to expand
and the energy for this expansion work
must also be supplied to the system.
 Cp> Cv (for gases)

 The energy required to raise the

temperature of a substance by one degree
is different at different temperatures and
pressures

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 Specific heats
 we introduce another ideal-gas property called the specific
heat ratio k, defined as k = cp/cv
 For air , cp= 0.24, and cv= 0.171. so k = 1.4
 The specific ratio also varies with temperature, but this
variation is very mild.
 For monatomic gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton,
xenon and radon), its value is essentially constant at
1.667.
 Many diatomic gases “hydrogen (H2), nitrogen (N2), oxygen
(O2), fluorine (F2), and chlorine (Cl2)”, including air, have a
specific heat ratio of about 1.4 at room temperature.

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 Specific heats
 A substance whose specific volume (or density) is constant
is called an incompressible substance.
 The specific volumes of solids and liquids essentially
remain constant during a process
 Cp= Cv= C (For incompressible substance)

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 Methods of heating and expanding gases
and vapors
 A compressible fluid (gas or vapor) may be compressed by
reducing its volume or expanded by increasing its volume.
This may be done inside a cylinder by moving a piston or
by allowing the pressure to change as it flows through a
system such as a turbine.
 For ease of understanding, let us consider the change as
occurring inside a cylinder. The process is best explained
with a pressure -volume graph.
 When the volume changes, the pressure and temperature
may also change.
 The resulting pressure depends upon the final temperature.
The final temperature depends on whether the fluid is
cooled or heated during the process. It is normal to show
these changes on a graph of pressure plotted against
volume (p-V graphs).

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 Methods of heating and expanding gases
and vapors
 A typical graph for a compression and an expansion process
is shown in below figure.

 It has been discovered that the resulting curves follows the

mathematical law

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 Methods of heating and expanding gases
and vapors
 Depending on whether the fluid is heated or cooled, a family
of such curves is obtained as shown in the below figure.
 Each graph has a different value of n and n is called the
index of expansion or compression.

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Methods of heating and expanding gases
and vapors

n= ∞

n= 0

n= 1

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 Methods of heating and expanding gases and
vapors

Hyperbolic expansion
A gas or vapor may be expanded in such a way that the pressure multiplied by volume
remains constant during the whole of expansion. (i.e., n= 1)

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 Methods of heating and expanding gases
and vapors
Example 1

1 cubic centimeter= 10^-6 cubic meter

Example 2

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 Methods of heating and expanding gases
and vapors
Example 3

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Methods of heating and expanding gases
and vapors
 Free Expansion: Free expansion occurs when a fluid is allowed to
expand suddenly into a vacuum chamber through an orifice of large
dimensions.

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Methods of heating and expanding gases
and vapors

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Methods of heating and expanding gases
and vapors

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 Methods of heating and expanding gases
and vapors
Assignment No 2

 Throttling : this type of expansion occurs when a gas or vapour is

expanded through an aperture of minute dimensions such as slightly
opened value
 A throttling process is defined as a process in which
there is no change in enthalpy from state one to state
two, h1 = h2; no work is done, W = 0; and the process
is adiabatic, Q = 0.

Enthalpy is a measurement of energy

in a thermodynamic system. It is
equal to the internal energy of the
system plus the product of pressure
and volume

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Work done by Gas or vapour in expanding

Process Work done

Contant volume W= 0
Constant pressure W= p(v2-v1)
Hyperbolic exapnsion W= p1v1 log v2/v1 , where v2/v1= rv
A General law W= p2v2-p1v1/1-n or p1v1-p2v2/n-1
Adiabatic expansion W= p1v1-p2v2/γ-1
Free expansion W=0
Throttling W= 0

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Example

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Hint: Lecture 5, Example 4-3

any number raised to the zero power

equal to one
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Laws of perfect gases
 Boyles Law: When a gas is heated at const.
temperature the pressure multiplied by volume remains
constant.
PxV= constant , it is also called hyperbolic expansion &
isothermal expansion.
 Charles law:
Volume is directly proportional to temparature while
pressure is kept const.
 Gas Equation: PV/T = constant , For atmospheric air ,
R= 96 ft-lb/deg-K , so PV/T=R, when wt of a gas is
under consideration,
PV= wRT. Is the eqn of a perfect gas.

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Laws of perfect gases
 Joules Law: This law states that the internal energy of
a gas is a function of temperature. It follows that a
change in internal energy is proportional to the change
of temperature.
U= Cv(T2-T1)

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 Reversible Process
A reversible process is defined as a process that can be reversed
without leaving any trace on the surroundings.
That is, both the system and the surroundings are returned to their
initial states at the end of the reverse process.
This is possible only if the net heat and net work exchange
between the system and the surroundings is zero for the combined
(original and reverse) process.
Reversible processes actually do not occur in nature. They are
merely idealizations of actual processes.
Reversible processes can be approximated by actual devices, but
they can never be achieved.
“Wasted” energy must be nonzero.

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Irreversible Process
Processes that are not reversible are called irreversible
processes.

Things that make processes irreversible:

 friction
 heat transfer
 mass transfer
 mixing.
An irreversible process would be burning a piece of paper, blowing up a
stick of dynamite, or frying an egg.
There aren't a lot of truly reversible processes around. Letting a
gas expand v e r y s l o w l y in a
chamber, slowly enough that its temperature doesn't change, is an
example of a reversible process.

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