Mister T said:
A slowAurelius120 said:
A dramatic example would be an explosion.Aurelius120 said:
An irreversible isothermal process is a thermodynamic process where the temperature remains constant, but the process is not reversible. This means that the system does not return to its initial state without leaving changes in the surroundings, often due to factors like friction, rapid compression or expansion, and non-equilibrium states.
In an irreversible isothermal process, if the external pressure is not provided, you can still calculate the work done using the internal pressure of the gas. The work done (W) can be calculated using the formula W = P_internal * ΔV, where P_internal is the internal pressure of the gas and ΔV is the change in volume.
External pressure is not provided in some problems to emphasize the focus on the internal properties of the system or to simplify the problem by considering only the state variables of the gas. In real-world applications, external pressure can vary and may not be constant, making it more practical to use internal pressure for calculations.
In an isothermal process, temperature remains constant throughout the entire process. This constancy ensures that the internal energy of an ideal gas does not change, as internal energy is a function of temperature. Therefore, any heat added to the system is used to do work on the surroundings or vice versa, without changing the temperature.
An example of an irreversible isothermal process is the rapid expansion of a gas into a vacuum (free expansion). In this scenario, the gas expands quickly and irreversibly, and because it is an isothermal process, the temperature of the gas remains constant throughout the expansion. However, no work is done on the surroundings because there is no external pressure opposing the expansion.