GAS

PROCESSES
I S O B A R I C , I S O C H O R I C , I S OT H E R M A L ,
A D I A B AT I C , P O LY T R O P I C , I S E N T R O P I C
ISOBARIC
• This is a process where the pressure of the system is kept constant.
•P = 0
•An example of this would be when water is boiling in a pot over a burner. In this case, heat is
being exchanged between the burner and pot but the pressure stays constant.
ISOCHORIC/ ISOMETRIC
• This is a process where the volume of the system is kept constant.
•ΔV = 0
•An example of this would be when you have Helium gas sealed up in a container and there is
an object (like a piston) pushing down the container (exerting pressure). But, gas molecules is
neither entering nor exiting out of the system.
ISOTHERMAL
• This is a process where the temperature of the system is kept constant.
ΔU = 0, ΔT = 0
•When volume increases, the pressure will decrease, and vice versa.
•As an example, gas molecules are sealed up in a container but an object on top of the
container (such as a piston) pushes down on the container in a very slow fashion that there is
not enough to change its temperature.
ADIABATIC
• This is a process where no heat is being added or removed from the system.
• •Or can be simply stated as: no heat transfer (or heat flow) happeniAn adiabatic system is
perfectly insulated from external environment and there is no heat transfer in or out of the
system. Work done in an adiabatic process completely results in change in the internal energy
of the system.
• A special case in adiabatic processes is a ‘Reversible adiabatic process’. The following equation
describes such a system for an ideal gas.
ISENTROPIC
An isentropic process is one in which entropy remains
constant (Δs=0)(Δs=0). Since no energy is dissipated as heat an isentropic
process is both adiabatic and reversible.
 POLYTROPIC
The polytropic process is one in which the pressure-volume relation is given as

A polytropic fluid system follows the relationship:

From this relationship we can arrive at relationships for several other types of thermodynamic process:
•When n=0the process is isobaric
•When n=1, the process is isothermal
•When n=k, the process is isentropic
•When n=∞, the process is isochoric