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Work
Work
Consider the two systems
labeled A and B.
In system A, a gas is stirred
by a paddle wheel: the paddle
wheel does work on the gas.
In principle, the work could
be evaluated in terms of the
forces and the motions at the
boundary between the paddle
wheel and the gas.
By contrast, consider system B, which includes only the battery.
At the boundary of system B, forces and motions are not evident. Rather, there is
an electric current i driven by an electrical potential difference existing across the
terminals a and b. That this type of interaction at the boundary can be classified
as work follows from the thermodynamic definition of work given previously:
We can imagine the current is supplied to a hypothetical electric motor that lifts a
weight in the surroundings.
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Work Revisited
A thermodynamic definition
of work states:
Work is done by a system on
its surroundings if the sole
effect on everything external
to the system could have
been the raising of a weight.
In other words, work is the
energy transfer (across a
boundary) associated with a
force acting through a
distance resulting (usually)
in a movement of the
boundary.
Mathematically:
Forms of Work
Expansion/Compression Work
(Moving Boundary Work)
V2
p dV
V1
Electric
Others:
Polarization
Magnetization
Surface tension
Spring work
The total boundary work done during the entire process as the piston moves is
obtained by adding all the differential works from the initial state to the final state:
Strictly speaking, the pressure P in the above equation is the pressure at the inner
surface of the piston. It becomes equal to the pressure of the gas in the cylinder only
if the process is quasi-equilibrium and thus the entire gas in the cylinder is at the
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same pressure at any given time.
Of course the work used to overcome friction appears as frictional heat and the
energy transmitted through the crankshaft is transmitted to other components
(such as the wheels) to perform certain functions. But note that the energy
transferred by the system as work must equal the energy received by the
crankshaft, the atmosphere, and the energy used to overcome friction.
The use of the boundary work relation is not limited to the quasi-equilibrium
processes of gases only. It can also be used for solids and liquids.
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Consider a rigid tank containing air at 500 kPa and 150C. As a result of heat transfer
to the surroundings, the temperature and pressure inside the tank drop to 65C and 400
kPa, respectively. Let us determine the boundary work done during this process.
Is there a change in volume?
Since a rigid tank has a constant volume,
i.e. dV = 0. Therefore:
or
we have:
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We have:
Since
.