Experiment 6
DETERMINATION OF SPECIFIC HEAT RATIO OF AIR BASED ON
CLEMENT DESORME’S METHOD
I. Purpose of Experiment:
- The purpose of this experiment is to determine the specific heat ratio (γ =
Cp/Cv) for air. This is achieved by employing the Clement-Desorme’s method,
which examines the relationship between pressure, volume, and temperature
during an adiabatic expansion and a constant volume heating process.
II. Theoretical Background:
- A method of determining gamma, the ratio of the specific heat capacities at
constant pressure and constant volume of an ideal gas was proposed by Clement
Desormes. The method consists of a large flask A and an U-shape water
manometer as shown in Fig.1. In this case air is considered to be the ideal gas
that would undergo a quasi-static adiabatic expansion from state 1 to state 2,
followed by a constant volume process from state 2 to state 3 as illustrated in
Fig.2.
- Indeed, when the flask is closed, a mass of dry air of volume V 0 at atmospheric
pressure P0 (as indicated a zero-height difference on the manometer) is enclosed.
When air is slowly pumped into the flask by squeezing the rubber-air-ball
blower B, an additional volume which had been outside the flask is now
compressed inside the flask. The pressure in the flask is increased to P1 and the
volume the gas occupied is reduced to V 1. The manometer now indicates a
height difference which is related to the pressure change:
- ρ is the density of the liquid in the
manometer. When the lid K 2 of the flask is quickly opened and closed, the extra
air is allowed to escape and the pressure returns momentarily to atmospheric.
The ideal gas is allowed to expand adiabatically then at this moment the
pressure P2 = P0, T 2 is less than T 0 and the volume is V 2. Since PV γ = const along
an adiabatic process, then
1
- After just some minutes, gas is warmed up slowly at constant volume, that is T 3
= T 0, V 3 = V 2, and the pressure has increased to P3.
- The new pressure P3 is given by:
- Since PV = const along an isotherm:
- Where V 2 = V 3, the volume of the flask Combining equations (2) and (4) and
taking the natural log of both sides we obtain: (Hint: divide (2) by P2 which
equals P0 and find the ratio of pressures to volumes from equation (4).)
- In terms of the variables measure in lab, then we have:
- If ρg h / P0 is small compared to one, then we can make an approximation.
When x << 1, we have ln(1+x) ~ x. Then equation (6) becomes:
- Or γ can be
simply determined by equation:
III. Experimental Procedure
- Step 1: Open the valve connected to the rubber-air-ball blower and squeeze it
to pump the air to flask A. Close that valve and wait for the stability of the water
columns in the U-shape manometer.
- Step 2: Adjust the height difference H (in mm) in two water columns of the U-
shape manometer so that you can choose its value as either 240 or 245 or 250
mmH2O.
- Step 3: Open the other valve to let the air out of the flask. In this step, please
observe carefully the level of two water columns. When they have the same
height then must close the valve at once.
2
- Step 4: Waite for a while (one or two minutes) to have the stability of two
water columns. In this situation, it means that the temperature inside and outside
of the flask is equal. Record the positions of water levels in pipes as l 1 and l2in
the U-shape manometer and consequently the value h (in mm) showing their
difference.
- Step 5: Repeat the measurement procedure from Step 1 to Step 4 again for
more 9 times and record all measured results in a data table which consists of 4
columns as Trial, l 1, l 2, and h, respectively. Note that the value of H must be
kept constants for all trials of measurement.
IV. Experimental Data Processing
H = 250(mm)
Trial L1(mm) L2(mm) h=L1−L2 H
γ=
H−h
1 297 242 55 1.28
2 300 240 60 1.32
3 302 238 64 1.34
4 298 242 56 1.29
5 298 244 54 1.28
6 299 241 58 1.30
7 298 243 55 1.28
8 301 239 62 1.33
9 300 240 60 1.32
10 301 238 63 1.34
L1=299.4 L2=240.7 h=¿ 58.7 γ =¿ 1.31
- The uncertain of L1:
√
10
∑ (L1 i− L )2
1
i=1
∆ L1 = =1.56
10
- The uncertain of L2:
√
10
∑ (L2 i− L )2
2
i=1
∆ L2 = =1.95
10
3
- The uncertain of h:
∆ h=√ 1.562 +1.952=2.50
Hence
h=h ± ∆ h=58.7 ±2.50 (mm)
* Calculation:
- The formula:
H
γ=
H−h
H 250
γ= = =1.31
H−h 250−58.7
∆ γ =γ
√( h )
∆h 2
=1.31 × (
√
2.50 2
58.7
) =0.06
Hence
γ =γ ± ∆ γ =1.31 ± 0.06(mm)
- Theoretically, we can calculate the specific heat ratio of air by using the
i+ 2
formula γ = i , where i = 5 which is the Degree of Freedom (DOF) of ideal gas
(in this case it is air). Hence, we get:
i+ 2 5+ 2
γ= = =1.40
i 5
- The experiment result is a bit different from the theoretical result due to
instrumental uncertainty, observational uncertainty and environment uncertainty.
