CHAPTER FOUR

WORK TRANSFER
Basis concepts of systems and surroundings, boundary, control volume, property, state
process and equilibrium
SYSTEMS AND CONTROL VOLUMES
A system is defined as a quantity of matter or a region in space chosen for study. The mass or
region outside the system is called the surroundings.
The real or imaginary surface that separates the system from its surroundings is called the
boundary. These terms are illustrated in Fig. 4.1. The boundary of a system can be fixed or
movable. Note that the boundary is the contact surface shared by both the system and the
surroundings. Mathematically speaking, the boundary has zero thickness, and thus it can
neither contain any mass nor occupy any volume in space.

Fig. 4.1
Systems may be considered to be closed or open, depending on whether a fixed mass or a fixed
volume in space is chosen for study. A closed system (also known as a control mass) consists of
a fixed amount of mass, and no mass can cross its boundary. That is, no mass can enter or leave
a closed system, as shown in Fig. 4.2 But energy, in the form of heat or work, can cross the
boundary; and the volume of a closed system does not have to be fixed. If, as a special case,
even energy is not allowed to cross the boundary, that system is called an isolated system.

Fig. 4.2
Consider the piston-cylinder device shown in Fig. 4.3. Let us say that we would like to find out
what happens to the enclosed gas when it is heated. Since we are focusing our attention on the
gas, it is our system. The inner surfaces of the piston and the cylinder form the boundary, and
since no mass is crossing this boundary, it is a closed system. Notice that energy may cross the
boundary, and part of the boundary (the inner surface of the piston, in this case) may move.
Everything outside the gas, including the piston and the cylinder, is the surroundings.
An open system, or a control volume, as it is often called, is a properly selected region in space.
It usually encloses a device that involves mass flow such as a compressor, turbine, or nozzle.
Flow through these devices is best studied by selecting the region within the device as the
control volume. Both mass and energy can cross the boundary of a control volume.

Fig. 4.4 A closed system with a moving boundary.

A large number of engineering problems involve mass flow in and out of a system and,
therefore, are modeled as control volumes. A water heater, a car radiator, a turbine, and a
compressor all involve mass flow and should be analyzed as control volumes (open systems)
instead of as control masses (closed systems). In general, any arbitrary region in space can be
selected as a control volume. There are no concrete rules for the selection of control volumes,
but the proper choice certainly makes the analysis much easier. If we were to analyze the flow
of air through a nozzle, for example, a good choice for the control volume would be the region
within the nozzle. The boundaries of a control volume are called a control surface, and they can
be real or imaginary. In the case of a nozzle, the inner surface of the nozzle forms the real part
of the boundary, and the entrance and exit areas form the imaginary part, since there are no
physical surfaces there (Fig. 4.4a). A control volume can be fixed in size and shape, as in the
case of a nozzle, or it may involve a moving boundary, as shown in Fig. 4.4b. Most control
volumes, however, have fixed boundaries and thus do not involve any moving boundaries. A
control volume can also involve heat and work interactions just as a closed system, in addition
to mass interaction. As an example of an open system, consider the water heater shown in Fig.
4.5.
 Fig 4.4
Let us say that we would like to determine how much heat we must transfer to the water in the
tank in order to supply a steady stream of hot water. Since hot water will leave the tank and be
replaced by cold water, it is not convenient to choose a fixed mass as our system for the
analysis. Instead, we can concentrate our attention on the
volume formed by the interior surfaces of the tank and consider
the hot and cold water streams as mass leaving and entering the
control volume. The interior surfaces of the tank form the control
surface for this case, and mass is crossing the control surface at
two locations.
A control volume can involve fixed, moving, real, and imaginary
boundaries.
In an engineering analysis, the system under study must be
defined carefully.
In most cases, the system investigated is quite simple and
obvious, and defining the system may seem like a tedious and
unnecessary task. In other cases, however, the system under
study may be rather involved, and a proper choice of the system
may greatly simplify the analysis.

Fig.4.5: An open system (a control volume) with one inlet and one exit.
PROPERTIES OF A SYSTEM
Any characteristic of a system is called a property. Some familiar properties are pressure P,
temperature T, volume V, and mass m. The list can be extended to include less familiar ones
such as viscosity, thermal conductivity, modulus of elasticity, thermal expansion coefficient,
electric resistivity, and even velocity and elevation.
Properties are considered to be either intensive or extensive. Intensive properties are those
that are independent of the mass of a system, such as temperature, pressure, and density.
Extensive properties are those whose values depend on the size—or extent—of the system.
Total mass, total volume, and total momentum are some examples of extensive properties. An
easy way to determine whether a property is intensive or extensive is to divide the system into
two equal parts with an imaginary partition, as shown in Fig. 4.6. Each part will have the same
value of intensive properties as the original system, but half the value of the extensive
properties.

Fig. 4.6: Criterion to differentiate intensive and extensive properties.

Continuum
Matter is made up of atoms that are widely spaced in the gas phase. Yet it is very convenient to
disregard the atomic nature of a substance and view it as a continuous, homogeneous matter
with no holes, that is, a continuum. The continuum idealization allows us to treat properties as
point functions and to assume the properties vary continually in space with no jump
discontinuities.
This idealization is valid as long as the size of the system we deal with is large relative to the
space between the molecules. This is the case in practically all problems, except some
specialized ones. The continuum idealization is implicit in many statements we make, such as
“the density of water in a glass is the same at any point.”
To have a sense of the distance involved at the molecular level, consider a container filled with
oxygen at atmospheric conditions. The diameter of the oxygen molecule is about 3 x 10-10 m
and its mass is 5.3 x10-26 kg. Also, the mean free path of oxygen at 1 atm pressure and 20°C is
6.3 x 10-8 m. That is, an oxygen molecule travels, on average, a distance of 6.3x10-8 m (about
200 times of its diameter) before it collides with another molecule.
Also, there are about 3 x 1016 molecules of oxygen in the tiny volume of 1 mm3 at 1 atm
pressure and 20°C (Fig. 4.7). The continuum model is applicable as long as the characteristic
length of the system (such as its diameter) is much larger than the mean free path of the
molecules. At very high vacuums or very high elevations, the mean free path may become large
(for example, it is about 0.1 m for atmospheric air at an elevation of 100 km). For such cases the
rarefied gas flow theory should be used, and the impact of individual molecules should be
considered. In this text we will limit our consideration to substances that can be modeled as a
continuum.

DENSITY AND SPECIFIC GRAVITY

Density is defined as mass per unit volume (Fig. 4.7).
Density: …………………………………. (4.1)
The reciprocal of density is the specific volume v, which is defined as volume per unit mass.
That is,
…………………………………………. (4.2)

For a differential volume element of mass 𝜕𝑚 and volume𝜕𝑉, density can be expressed as
𝜌 = 𝜕𝑚/𝜕𝑉.
The density of a substance, in general, depends on temperature and pressure. The density of
most gases is proportional to pressure and inversely proportional to temperature. Liquids and
solids, on the other hand, are essentially incompressible substances, and the variation of their
density with pressure is usually negligible. At 20°C, for example, the density of water changes
from 998 kg/m3 at 1 atm to 1003 kg/m3 at 100 atm, a change of just 0.5 percent. The density of
liquids and solids depends more strongly on temperature than it does on pressure. At 1 atm, for
example, the density of water changes from 998 kg/m3 at 20°C to 975 kg/m3 at
75°C, a change of 2.3 percent, which can still be neglected in many engineering analyses.
Sometimes the density of a substance is given relative to the density of a well-known
substance. Then it is called specific gravity, or relative density, and is defined as the ratio of the
density of a substance to the density of some standard substance at a specified temperature
(usually water at 4°C, for which ρH2O =1000 kg/m3). That is,

Specific gravity: ………………………………… (4.3)

Note that the specific gravity of a substance is a dimensionless quantity.

However, in SI units, the numerical value of the specific gravity of a substance is exactly equal
to its density in g/cm3 or kg/L (or 0.001 times the density in kg/m3) since the density of water
at 4°C is 1 g/cm3 1 kg/L 1000 kg/m3. The specific gravity of mercury at 0°C, for example, is
13.6.
Therefore, its density at 0°C is 13.6 g/cm3= 13.6 kg/L =13,600 kg/m3. The specific gravities of
some substances at 0°C are given in Table 1–3.
Note that substances with specific gravities less than 1 are lighter than water, and thus they
would float on water.

Fig 4.7. Density is mass per unit volume; specific volume is volume per unit mass.
The weight of a unit volume of a substance is called specific weight and is expressed as:
……………………… (4.4)

Where g is the gravitational acceleration. The densities of liquids are essentially constant, and
thus they can often be approximated as being incompressible substances during most
processes without sacrificing much in accuracy.
 Table 4.1 Specific gravities of some substances at 0°C

STATE AND EQUILIBRIUM

Consider a system not undergoing any change. At this point, all the properties can be measured
or calculated throughout the entire system, which gives us a set of properties that completely
describes the condition, or the state, of the system. At a given state, all the properties of a
system have fixed values. If the value of even one property changes, the state will change to a
different one. In Fig. 4.8 a system is shown at two different states.

Fig. 4.8: A system at two different states.

Thermodynamics deals with equilibrium states. The word equilibrium implies a state of balance.
In an equilibrium state there are no unbalanced potentials (or driving forces) within the system.
A system in equilibrium experiences no changes when it is isolated from its surroundings.
There are many types of equilibrium, and a system is not in thermodynamic equilibrium unless
the conditions of all the relevant types of equilibrium are satisfied. For example, a system is in
thermal equilibrium if the temperature is the same throughout the entire system, as shown in
Fig. 4.9. That is, the system involves no temperature differential, which is the driving force for
heat flow. Mechanical equilibrium is related to pressure, and a system is in mechanical
equilibrium if there is no change in pressure at any point of the system with time. However, the
pressure may vary within the system with elevation as a result of gravitational effects. For
example, the higher pressure at a bottom layer is balanced by the extra weight it must carry,
and, therefore, there is no imbalance of forces. The variation of pressure as a result of gravity in
most thermodynamic systems is relatively small and usually disregarded. If a system involves
two phases, it is in phase equilibrium when the mass of each phase reaches an equilibrium level
and stays there. Finally, a system is in chemical equilibrium if its chemical composition does not
change with time, that is, no chemical reactions occur. A system will not be in equilibrium
unless all the relevant equilibrium criteria are satisfied.

Fig. 4.9: A closed system reaching thermal equilibrium.

PROCESSES AND CYCLES

Any change that a system undergoes from one equilibrium state to another is called a process,
and the series of states through which a system passes during a process is called the path of the
process (Fig. 4.10).

Fig. 4.10: A process between states 1 and 2 and the process path.
To describe a process completely, one should specify the initial and final states of the process,
as well as the path it follows, and the interactions with the surroundings.
When a process proceeds in such a manner that the system remains infinitesimally close to an
equilibrium state at all times, it is called a quasi-static, or quasi-equilibrium process. A quasi-
equilibrium process can be viewed as a sufficiently slow process that allows the system to
adjust itself internally so that properties in one part of the system do not change any faster
than those at other parts.
Fig. 4.11: Quasi-equilibrium and nonquasi-equilibrium compression processes.
This is illustrated in Fig. 4.12. When a gas in a piston-cylinder device is compressed suddenly,
the molecules near the face of the piston will not have enough time to escape and they will
have to pile up in a small region in front of the piston, thus creating a high-pressure region
there. Because of this pressure difference, the system can no longer be said to be in
equilibrium, and this makes the entire process nonquasi-equilibrium. However, if the piston is
moved slowly, the molecules will have sufficient time to redistribute and there will not be a
molecule pileup in front of the piston. As a result, the pressure inside the cylinder will always be
nearly uniform and will rise at the same rate at all locations. Since equilibrium is maintained at
all times, this is a quasi-equilibrium process. It should be pointed out that a quasi-equilibrium
process is an idealized process and is not a true representation of an actual process. But many
actual processes closely approximate it, and they can be modeled as quasi-equilibrium with
negligible error. Engineers are interested in quasi-equilibrium processes for two reasons. First,
they are easy to analyze; second, work-producing devices deliver the most work when they
operate on quasi-equilibrium processes. Therefore, quasi-equilibrium processes serve as
standards to which actual processes can be compared.
Process diagrams plotted by employing thermodynamic properties as coordinates are very
useful in visualizing the processes. Some common properties that are used as coordinates are
temperature T, pressure P, and volume V (or specific volume v). Figure 1–28 shows the P-V
diagram of a compression process of a gas.
Note that the process path indicates a series of equilibrium states through which the system
passes during a process and has significance for quasi-equilibrium processes only. For non-
quasi-equilibrium processes, we are not able to characterize the entire system by a single state,
and thus we cannot speak of a process path for a system as a whole. A non-quasi-equilibrium
process is denoted by a dashed line between the initial and final states instead of a solid line.
The prefix iso- is often used to designate a process for which a particular property remains
constant. An isothermal process, for example, is a process during which the temperature T
remains constant; an isobaric process is a process during which the pressure P remains
constant; and an isochoric (or isometric) process is a process during which the specific volume v
remains constant.
A system is said to have undergone a cycle if it returns to its initial state at the end of the
process. That is, for a cycle the initial and final states are identical.

Fig. 4.12: The P-V diagram of a compression process.

REVERSIBLE AND IRREVERSIBLE PROCESSES
Reversible process. A reversible process (also sometimes known as quasi-static process) is one
which can be stopped at any stage and reversed so that the system and surroundings are
exactly restored to their initial states.
This process has the following characteristics:
1. It must pass through the same states on the reversed path as were initially visited on the
forward path.
2. This process when undone will leave no history of events in the surroundings.
3. It must pass through a continuous series of equilibrium states.
No real process is truly reversible but some processes may approach reversibility, to close
approximation.

Fig4:13 Reversible process

Examples. Some examples of nearly reversible processes are:
(i) Frictionless relative motion.
(ii) Expansion and compression of spring.
(iii) Frictionless adiabatic expansion or compression of fluid.
(iv) Polytropic expansion or compression of fluid.
(v) Isothermal expansion or compression.
(vi) Electrolysis.

Irreversible process. An irreversible process is one in which heat is transferred through a finite
temperature.
Examples.
(i) Relative motion with friction (ii) Combustion
(iii) Diffusion
(iv) Free expansion
(v) Throttling
(vi) Electricity flow through a resistance
(vii) Heat transfer
(viii) Plastic deformation.

An irreversible process is usually represented by a dotted (or discontinuous) line joining the
end states to indicate that the intermediate states are indeterminate (Fig. 4.13).
Irreversibilities are of two types:

1. External irreversibilities. These are associated with dissipating effects outside the working
fluid.
Example. Mechanical friction occurring during a process due to some external source.
2. Internal irreversibilities. These are associated with dissipating effects within the working
fluid.
Example. Unrestricted expansion of gas, viscosity and

The Steady-Flow Process

The terms steady and uniform are used frequently in engineering, and thus it is important to
have a clear understanding of their meanings. The term steady implies no change with time.
The opposite of steady is unsteady, or transient. The term uniform, however, implies no change
with location over a specified region. These meanings are consistent with their everyday use
(steady girlfriend, uniform properties, etc.). A large number of engineering devices operate for
long periods of time under the same conditions, and they are classified as steady-flow devices.
Processes involving such devices can be represented reasonably well by a somewhat idealized
process, called the steady-flow process, which can be defined as a process during which a fluid
flows through a control volume steadily (Fig. 4.13). That is, the fluid properties can change from
point to point within the control volume, but at any fixed point they remain the same during
the entire process. Therefore, the volume V, the mass m, and the total energy content E of the
control volume remain constant during a steady flow process (Fig. 4.14).

Fig.4.13: During a steady-flow process, fluid properties within the control volume may change
with position but not with time.

Steady-flow conditions can be closely approximated by devices that are intended for
continuous operation such as turbines, pumps, boilers, condensers, and heat exchangers or
power plants or refrigeration systems.
Some cyclic devices, such as reciprocating engines or compressors, do not satisfy any of the
conditions stated above since the flow at the inlets and the exits will be pulsating and not
steady. However, the fluid properties vary with time in a periodic manner, and the flow through
these devices can still be analyzed as a steady-flow process by using time-averaged values for
the properties.
Fig.4.14: Under steady-flow conditions, the mass and energy contents of a control volume
remain constant

CYCLE
Any process or series of processes whose end states are identical is termed a cycle. The
processes through which the system has passed can be shown on a state diagram, but a
complete section of the path requires in addition a statement of the heat and work crossing the
boundary of the system. Fig.4.15 shows such a cycle in which a system commencing at
condition ‘1’ changes in pressure and volume through a path 123 and returns to its initial
condition ‘1’.

Fig: 4.15 Cycle of Operations

POINT FUNCTION
When two properties locate a point on the graph (co-ordinate axes) then those properties are
called as point function. Examples. Pressure, temperature, volume etc.

PATH FUNCTION
There are certain quantities which cannot be located on a graph by a point but are given by the
area or so, on that graph. In that case, the area on the graph, pertaining to the particular
process, is a function of the path of the process. Such quantities are called path functions.
Examples. Heat, work etc.
Heat and work are inexact differentials. Their change cannot be written as difference between
their end states.

Thus
Note. The operator δ is used to denote inexact differentials and operator d is used to denote
exact differentials.

ENERGY, WORK AND HEAT

Energy
Energy is a general term embracing energy in transition and stored energy. The stored energy
of a substance may be in the forms of mechanical energy and internal energy (other forms of
stored energy may be chemical energy and electrical energy). Part of the stored energy may
take the form of either potential energy (which is the gravitational energy due to height above
a chosen datum line) or kinetic energy due to velocity. The balance part of the energy is known
as internal energy.
In a non-flow process usually there is no change of potential or kinetic energy and hence
change of mechanical energy will not enter the calculations. In a flow process, however, there
may be changes in both potential and kinetic energy and these must be taken into account
while considering the changes of stored energy. Heat and work are the forms of energy in
transition.
Energy can cross the boundary of a closed system in two distinct forms: heat and work (Fig.
4.16).

Fig. 4.16: Energy can cross the boundaries of a closed system in the form of heat and work.

Work and Heat

Work
Work is said to be done when a force moves through a distance. If a part of the boundary of a
system undergoes a displacement under the action of a pressure, the work done W is the
product of the force (pressure × area), and the distance it moves in the direction of the force.
Work is also a form of energy transferred like heat and, therefore, has energy units such as kJ.
The work done during a process between states 1 and 2 is denoted by W12, or simply W. The
work done per unit mass of a system is denoted by w and is expressed as
The work done per unit time is called power and is denoted W
The unit of power is kJ/s, or kW.
Heat and work are directional quantities, and thus the complete description of a heat or work
interaction requires the specification of both the magnitude and direction. One way of doing
that is to adopt a sign convention.
The generally accepted formal sign convention for heat and work interactions is as follows: heat
transfer to a system and work done by a system are positive; heat transfer from a system and
work done on a system are negative.
Another way is to use the subscripts in and out to indicate direction (Fig. 4.17)

Fig. 4.17: Specifying the directions of heat and work.

Sign convention:
_ If the work is done by the system on the surroundings, e.g., when a fluid expands pushing a
piston outwards, the work is said to be positive.
i.e., Work output of the system = + W
_ If the work is done on the system by the surroundings, e.g., when a force is applied to a
rotating handle, or to a piston to compress a fluid, the work is said to be negative.
i.e., Work input to system = – W

Questions

Heating of an Oven by Work Transfer

A well-insulated electric oven is being heated through its heating element. If the entire oven,
including the heating element, is taken to be the system, determine whether this is a heat or
work interaction.

Solution

A well-insulated electric oven is being heated by its heating element. It is to be determined

whether this is a heat or work interaction.
Analysis For this problem, the interior surfaces of the oven form the system boundary, as
shown in Fig. 4.18 The energy content of the oven obviously increases during this process, as
evidenced by a rise in temperature. This energy transfer to the oven is not caused by a
temperature difference between the oven and the surrounding air. Instead, it is caused by
electrons crossing the system boundary and thus doing work. Therefore, this is a work
interaction.

Fig. 4.18

Electrical Work:
It was pointed out in Example above that electrons crossing the system boundary do electrical
work on the system. In an electric field, electrons in a wire move under the effect of
electromotive forces, doing work. When N coulombs of electrical charge move through a
potential difference V, the electrical work done is:

Which can also be expressed in the rate form as

Where We is the electrical power and I is the number of electrical charges flowing per unit time,
that is, the current (Fig. 4.22). In general, both V and I vary with time, and the electrical work
done during a time interval t is expressed as:

When both V and I remain constant during the time interval t, it reduces to
Fig.4.22: Electrical power in terms of resistance R, current I, and potential difference V.

MECHANICAL FORMS OF WORK

There are several different ways of doing work, each in some way related to a force acting
through a distance (Fig4.23). In elementary mechanics, the work done by a constant force F on
a body displaced a distance s in the direction of the force is given by:

Fig.4.23: The work done is proportional to the force applied (F) and the distance traveled (s).
Some common forms of mechanical work are discussed next.

Shaft Work
Energy transmission with a rotating shaft is very common in engineering practice (Fig. 4.24).
Often the torque T applied to the shaft is constant, which means that the force F applied is also
constant.

Fig. 4.24: Energy transmission through rotating shafts is commonly encountered in practice.

For a specified constant torque, the work done during n revolutions is determined as follows:
A force F acting through a moment arm r generates a torque T of (Fig4.25)

This force acts through a distance s, which is related to the radius r by

Then the shaft work is determined from

The power transmitted through the shaft is the shaft work done per unit time, which can be
expressed as:

where n is the number of revolutions per unit time.

Fig. 4.25: Shaft work is proportional to the torque applied and the number of revolutions of the
shaft.

EXAMPLE 4.1 on Power Transmission by the Shaft of a Car

Determine the power transmitted through the shaft of a car when the torque applied is 200 N
·m and the shaft rotates at a rate of 4000 revolutions per minute (rpm).

Fig.4.26:
Solution: The torque and the rpm for a car engine are given. The power transmitted is to be
determined.
Analysis: A sketch of the car is given in Fig. 4.26. The shaft power is determined directly from
Discussion: Note that power transmitted by a shaft is proportional to torque and the rotational
speed.

Heat
Heat (denoted by the symbol Q). Heat is defined as the form of energy that is transferred
between two systems (or a system and its surroundings) by virtue of a temperature difference
(Fig. 4.27). That is, an energy interaction is heat only if it takes place because of a temperature
difference. Then it follows that there cannot be any heat transfer between two systems that are
at the same temperature.

Fig.4.27: Temperature difference is the driving force for heat transfer. The larger the
temperature difference, the higher is the rate of heat transfer.

Consider the hot baked potato one more time. The potato contains energy, but this energy is
heat transfer only as it passes through the skin of the potato (the system boundary) to reach
the air, as shown in Fig. 4.28. Once in the surroundings, the transferred heat becomes part of
the internal energy of the surroundings. Thus, in thermodynamics, the term heat simply means
heat transfer.
Fig. 4.28: Energy is recognized as heat transfer only as it crosses the system boundary

A process during which there is no heat transfer is called an adiabatic process (Fig. 4.29). The
word adiabatic comes from the Greek word adiabatos, which means not to be passed. There
are two ways a process can be adiabatic: Either the system is well insulated so that only a
negligible amount of heat can pass through the boundary, or both the system and the
surroundings are at the same temperature and therefore there is no driving force (temperature
difference) for heat transfer. An adiabatic process should not be confused with an isothermal
process. Even though there is no heat transfer during an adiabatic process, the energy content
and thus the temperature of a system can still be changed by other means such as work.

Fig. 4.29: During an adiabatic process, a system exchanges no heat with its surroundings.

As a form of energy, heat has energy units, kJ (or Btu) being the most common one.
It is apparent that neither δW or δQ are exact differentials and therefore any integration of the
elemental quantities of work or heat which appear during a change from state 1 to state 2 must
be written as

Sign convention:
If the heat flows into a system from the surroundings, the quantity is said to be positive and,
conversely, if heat flows from the system to the surroundings it is said to be negative.
In other words
Heat received by the system = + Q
Heat rejected or given up by the system = – Q.

Comparison of Work and Heat

Similarities:
(i) Both are path functions and inexact differentials.
(ii) Both are boundary phenomenon i.e., both are recognized at the boundaries of the system as
they cross them.
(iii) Both are associated with a process, not a state. Unlike properties, work or heat has no
meaning at a state.
(iv) Systems possess energy, but not work or heat.

Dissimilarities:
(i) In heat transfer temperature difference is required.
(ii) In a stable system there cannot be work transfer, however, there is no restriction for the
transfer of heat.
(iii) The sole effect external to the system could be reduced to rise of a weight but in the case of
a heat transfer other effects are also observed.

REVERSIBLE WORK
Let us consider an ideal frictionless fluid contained in a cylinder above a piston as shown in
Fig. 4.15. Assume that the pressure and temperature of the fluid are uniform and that there is
no friction between the piston and the cylinder walls.

Let A = Cross-sectional area of the piston,

p = Pressure of the fluid at any instant,
(p – dp) A = Restraining force exerted by the surroundings on the piston, and
dl = The distance moved by the piston under the action of the force exerted.
Then work done by the fluid on the piston is given by force times the distance moved,

i.e., Work done by the fluid = (pA) × dl = pdV

(where dV = a small increase in volume)
Or considering unit mass
Work done = Pdv (where v = specific volume)
This is only true when (a) the process is frictionless and (b) the difference in pressure between
the fluid and its surroundings during the process is infinitely small. Hence when a reversible
process takes place between state 1 and state 2, we have

Fig 4.15

When a fluid undergoes a reversible process a series of state points can be joined up to form a
line on a diagram of properties. The work done by the fluid during any reversible process is
therefore given by the area under the line of process plotted on a p-v diagram (Fig. 4.15).
i.e., Work done = Shaded area on Fig. 4.16

Fig 4.16
Example 4.1. An artificial satellite revolves round the earth with a relative velocity of
800 m/s. If acceleration due to gravity is 9 m/s2 and gravitational force is 3600 N, calculate its
kinetic energy.

Solution. Relatively velocity of satellite, v = 800 m/s

Acceleration due to gravity, g = 9 m/s2
Gravitational force, m.g = 3600 N

Example 4.2. To a closed system 150 kJ of work is supplied. If the initial volume is
0.6 m3 and pressure of the system changes as p = 8 – 4V, where p is in bar and V is in m3,
determine the final volume and pressure of the system.

Solution. Amount of work supplied to a closed system = 150 kJ

Initial volume = 0.6 m3
Pressure-volume relationship, p = 8 – 4V
The work done during the process is given by

Positive sign is incompatible with the present problem, therefore it is not considered
REVERSIBLE WORK
Example 4.3. A fluid at a pressure of 3 bar, and with specific volume of 0.18 m3/kg, contained in
a cylinder behind a piston exapnds reversibly to a pressure of 0.6 bar according to a law, p =C/v2
where C is a constant. Calculate the work done by the fluid on the piston.
Solution. Refer Fig. 4.17.

Fig. 4.17

_Example 4.4. A cylinder contains 1 kg of a certain fluid at an initial pressure of 20 bar.

The fluid is allowed to expand reversibly behind a piston according to a law pV2 = constant until
the volume is doubled. The fluid is then cooled reversibly at constant pressure until the piston
regains its original position; heat is then supplied reversibly with the piston firmly locked in
position until the pressure rises to the original value of 20 bar. Calculate the net work done by
the fluid, for an initial volume of 0.05 m3.
Solution

Fig.4.18