ENERGY ANALYSIS OF CLOSED SYSTEMS

P is the absolute pressure, which is always positive.However, the volume

change dV is positive during an expansion process(volume increasing)
and negative during a compression process (volumedecreasing).
Thus, the boundary work is positive during an expansionprocess and
negative during a compression process. Therefore, Eq. 4–1 canbe viewed
as an expression for boundary work output, Wb,out. A negative

result indicates boundary work input (compression).The total boundary

work done during the entire process as the piston moves is obtained
by adding all the differential works from the initial stateto the final state is