(1) Example Mass of Air in a Room

Determine the mass of the air in a room whose dimensions

are 4m5m6m at 100kPa and 25 .
Solution The mass of air in a room is to be determined.
Analysis Air at specified conditions can be treated as an
ideal gas. The gas constant of air is Rg=287kJ/(kgK) and the
absolute temperature is T=25 +273=298K.
The volume of the room is
V=4m5m6m=120m3
The mass of air in the room is determined from the ideal gas
relation to be
m

pV
100 103 120m3

140.3kg
RgT 287J/(kg K) 298K

(2) Example Boundary Work during a Constant-Volume

A rigid tank contains air at 500kPa and 150 . As a result of
heat transfer to the surroundings, the temperature and
pressure inside the tank drop to 65 and 400kPa,
respectively. Show this process on the p-V diagram. Determine
the boundary work done during this process.
Solution

p, kPa
500
400

1
2

The boundary work can be determined to be

2

W 1 pdV 0

This is expected since a rigid tank has a constant volume and

dV= 0 in the above equation. Therefore, there is no boundary
work done during this process. That is, the boundary work
done during a constant-volume process is always zero. This is
also evident from the p-V diagram of the process (the area
under the process curve is zero).
(3) Example Cooling of a Hot Fluid in a Tank
A rigid tank contains a hot fluid that is cooled while being
stirred by a paddle wheel. Initially, the internal energy of the
fluid is 800kJ. During the cooling process, the fluid loses 500kJ
of heat, and the paddle wheel does 100kJ of work on the fluid.
Determine the final internal energy of the fluid. Neglect the
energy stored in the paddle wheel.
Solution Take the contents of the tank as the system.
This is a closed system since no mass crosses the boundary
during the process. We observe that the volume of a rigid tank
is constant and thus there is no boundary work and V2=V1 .
Also, heat is lost from the system and shaft work is done in the
system.
Assumption The tank is stationary and thus the kinetic and

potential energy changes are zero.

K E PE 0

Therefore,

E U

and internal energy is the only form of

the systems energy that may change during this process.

Ein Eout Esystem
Wpw, in Qout U U 2 U1

100kJ-500kJ = U2 - 800kJ , U2 = 400kJ

Therefore, the final internal energy of the system is 400kJ.
(4)

(5)