The boundary work done by a gas as it expands from an initial state 1 to a final state 2 is dependent on the process the gas undergoes between the two states. The work done by the gas, W1,2 is therefore referred to as a path function or process function Consider a piston-cylinder device that contains air which can assumed to be an ideal gas. The gas is initially at P1 =100 kPa and V= 1.0 m. Required:
Calculate the work done by the gas if it were to undergo the following individual processes. Plot all three processes on the same P-V plot