ENGG1050 Engineering Thermodynamics

Review Sheet Interpolation on Tables

1. Introduction

Thermodynamic tables are common tools to get properties for various substances
most commonly for water, refrigerants and hydrocarbons. Your POD Notes for
ENGG1050 contain a range of tables for use in the course.

A good set of tables is also located in the appendices of the text: Cengel & Boles,
Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach, McGraw-Hill, 2005 (SI version).

The following skills are very important in the use of tables:

Ability to find appropriate tables for substance properties. For example, the
water-steam tables are given as:
o Temperature based tables (with saturation pressure given as well)
o Pressure based tables (with saturated temperature as well)
o Superheated tables for steam
Ability to find properties that are NOT explicitly given as table values that
is, the ability to interpolate for values between stated values in the tables.

MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE VERY CONVERSANT WITH THE

PROPERTIES, TABLES AND CHARTS THAT GIVE YOU KEY INFORMATION

2. Basic interpolation

Consider the following part of the water-steam tables given as:

Ian Cameron, March 31, 2006

If we want to get the saturated pressure at T = 27C, then we need to interpolate the
value off the table. We need data from the table that spans the value of interest. This
is given by the data outlined in the previous table (in red). This is:

The interpolation is simply a straight line between the table values as now shown:

2
Note that the 27C is of the overall distance on the T scale on the graph and so the
5
2
value P which needs to be calculated is also of the Psat scale. This can be calculated
5
as:

It is important when interpolating to make sure you choose an origin point and be
consistent with that base point (in this case 3.1698) and the differences that you use
(e.g. (30-25) and (4.2469-3.1698) and NOT (3.1698-4.2469), otherwise you get the

Ian Cameron, March 31, 2006

wrong sign for the increment to add to the base value AND THE WRONG
ANSWER.

Exercise 1:

Try interpolating the saturated specific liquid enthalpy for water at T=304C. (See the
last page for the solution, ONLY AFTER YOU TRY IT!!)

3. Some more advanced interpolation

Life becomes a little more challenging when you might need to interpolate on the
superheated steam tables, a section of which is now given (Table A-6).

Suppose you want the vapour specific enthalpy at T=125C and P=0.03MPa. BOTH
these values are not directly on the table entries. In this case you need to interpolate
on BOTH T and P! This is much the same as before, except we now have 2 stages in
the calculation:

Interpolate on T to get the enthalpy values at P=0.01MPa and P=0.05MPa at

T=125C
Now interpolate on the P values to get the enthalpy at P=0.03MPa and
T=125C

The table above has been marked with the key values we need to establish to starting
point (shown in red). The following table shows the extracted values of interest and
where we want to interpolate:

Ian Cameron, March 31, 2006

I chose interpolation points at the mid-range values to make life easier for myself! If
its different, the same approach still applies:

1. Interpolate on T for the enthalpy values

2. Interpolate across the P values, for the above calculated values h1 and h2

This is then the 2 dimensional interpolation for specific enthalpy for superheated
vapour at the specified conditions

Exercise 2:

Get the specific vapour volume of steam at T=435C and P=4.85MPa

Ian Cameron, March 31, 2006

The solutions for the exercises are:

Exercise 1:

Exercise 2:

Ian Cameron, March 31, 2006

Ian Cameron, March 31, 2006