Thermodynamics 2 (TRDMIA2)

Lecture 3
2025
Properties of perfect gases –part 1
Chapter 2
Perfect gas
• Also called ideal gas – it is a theoretical gas in which all intermolecular forces are
neglected and does strictly obeys all gas laws under all conditions of temperature
and pressure.

• Gas properties: pressure, volume and temperature;

• The following laws governs the behaviour of a perfect gas:

-Boyle’s law

-Charles’ law and

-Gay-Lussac law

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Boyle’s law

• At constant temperature, the volume of

certain mass of enclosed gas varies inversely

1
with its pressure

𝑝∝
or
𝑉 Figure 1. Boyle’s law

pV = constant

That is:

p1V1=p2V2=p3V3=…=constant

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Charles’ law
• The volume occupied by a fixed amount of gas is proportional to its
absolute temperature, when the pressure remain constant.
𝑉
𝑉 ∝ 𝑇 𝑜𝑟 =𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡
𝑇
𝑉1 𝑉2 𝑉3
= = = ⋯ = 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡
𝑇1 𝑇2 𝑇3

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Charles’ law

Where, T = absolute temperature corresponding to t °C

T0 = absolute temperature corresponding to 0 °C
and V0 = volume of a given mass at 0 °C

Thus, when pressure remains constant, the volume of a gas decreases by 1/273 th of its
original volume for every 1 °C decrease in temperature. Hence, at a temperature of -273 °C,
the volume of the gas would become zero.

҉ The temperature at which the volume of gas becomes zero is called absolute zero
temperature

Note: In all calculations of a perfect gas, the pressure and temperature values are expressed
in absolute units.

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 Gay-Lussac law

• The absolute pressure of a given mass of a perfect gas is proportional with

the absolute temperature, when the volume remains constant

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General gas equation
Combine Boyle’s and Charles laws:

From

C= constant (its value depends on the mass and properties of the gas)
Or,
General gas equation

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Example 2.1.(TB)
• A gas occupies a volume of 0.1 m3 at a temperature of 20 °C and a pressure of 1.5 bar. Find the
final temperature of the gas, if it is compressed to a pressure of 7.5 bar and occupies a volume of
0,04 m3

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Joule’s law
• The change of internal energy of a perfect gas is direct proportional to
the change in temperature,

Where, c=constant of proportionality, known as specific heat.

The internal energy of an ideal gas depends only on the

temperature of the gas and it is independent of both pressure
and volume.
U = f(T)
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Characteristic Gas Equation
• It is a modified form of general gas equation,

pV= mRT
Where, p = pressure [Pa]
V = volume [m3]
m = mass of gas [kg]
R = characteristic gas constant [J/kgK]
T = temperature [K]
p V/m = RT or, pv = RT and p = RT or, p = ρRT
Where, v= specific volume [m3/kg], and ρ= gas density [kg/m3 ]

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Example 2.2 TB
• A vessel of capacity 3 m3 contains air at a pressure of 1.5 bar and a temperature of 25 °C. Additional air
is now pumped into the system until the pressure rises to 30 bar and temperature rises to 60 °C.
Determine the mass of air pumped in, and express the quantity as a volume at a pressure of 1.02 bar
and a temperature of 20 °C.
• If the vessel is allowed to cool until the temperature is again 25 °, calculate the pressure in the vessel.
• For air, R=287 J/kgK

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Example 2.2. cont.

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Example 2.3
• A spherical vessel of 1.5 m diameter, containing air at 40 °C is evacuated until the vacuum inside the
vessel becomes 735 mmHg. Calculate the mass of air pumped out.
• If the tank is then cooled to 3 °C, what will be the final pressure in the tank? Take atmospheric
pressure as 760 mmHg.

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Avogadro’s law

• Equal volumes of all gases, at the same temperature and pressure, contains equal number
of molecules

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Avogadro’s law

Thus, in a volume of 1 m3 , oxygen (O2) will contain the same number of

molecules as hydrogen (H2), when the temperature and pressure is the
same. Symbol Atomic mass Molecular mass
Gas
Hydrogen H2 1 2
Carbon C 12 12
Oxygen O2 16 32
Nitrogen N2 14 28
Sulphur S 32 32

Since the molecular mass of hydrogen is 2 and of oxygen is 32 thus, a

molecule of oxygen has 32/2=16 times the mass of hydrogen molecule
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Universal gas constant
The universal gas constant, Ru is the product between the characteristic gas
constant and the molecular mass of gas
[J/kmol K]
Where, M= molecular mass of the gas [kg/kmol]
R=characteristic gas constant [J/kg K]
is same for all gases, = 8314 J/kmol K (or 8.314 kJ/kmol K)

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Molar mass and gas constant of common gases
The gas constant is calculated from
R= Ru /M, where Ru = 8.31447
kJ/kmol·K and M is the molar mass

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Example 2.4 (TB)
• A mass of 2.25 kg of Nitrogen occupying 1.5 m3 is heated from 25 °C to 200 °C at a constant volume.
Calculate the initial and final pressures of the gas. Take Ru=8314 J/kg-mol K. Nitrogen molecular
mass is 28.

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Example 2.5 TB
• Nitrogen is to be stored at a pressure of 140 bar, a temperature of 27 °C in a steel flask of 0.05 m 3 volume. The
flask is to be protected against excessive pressure by a fusible plug which will melt and allow the gas to escape
if the temperature rises too high. Find:
• How many kilograms of nitrogen will the flask hold at the designated conditions?
• At what temperature must the fusible plug melt in order to limit the pressure of the full flask to a maximum of 168
bar?

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Specific heats of gas
Specific heat at constant volume
Is the amount if heat required to raise the temperature of a unit mass of a
substance, by one degree, when it is heated at constant volume. Denoted by cv
At constant volume
The work done, =
but at V=constant, W=0
thus, from First law of thermodynamics, Q1-2 –W1-2 = U2 –U1 = ΔU
the heat supplied to the gas at constant volume is:

= ΔU

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 Is the amount if heat required to raise the temperature of a unit mass of a
substance,
Specific by one
heats ofdegree,
gas when it is heated at constant pressure. Denoted by cp .
Specific heatpressure
At constant at constant pressure

The work done, =

The heat supplied at constant pressure is,
Thus, from, Q1-2 –W1-2 = U2 –U1 = ΔU we get,

From the above, as, +R

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Relation between specific heats
=R
and

= adiabatic
index

For air take:

R= 287 J/kg K
cp =1005 J/kg K
Thus, cv = cp-R = 1005-273 =718 J/kg K
And =1.4
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