5.2: Control Volume

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The Eulerian method requires to define a control volume (some time more than one). The control volume is a defined volume that was discussed earlier. The control volume is differentiated into two categories of control volumes, non–deformable and deformable.

Non–deformable control volume

is a control volume which is fixed in space relatively to an one coordinate system. This coordinate system may be in a relative motion to another (almost absolute) coordinate system.

Deformable control volume

is a volume having part of all of its boundaries in motion during the process at hand.

Control Volume and System After and During Motion
Figure 5.2: Control volume of a moving piston with in and out flow.

In the case where no mass crosses the boundaries, the control volume is a system. Every control volume is the focus of the certain interest and will be dealt with the basic equations, mass, momentum, energy, entropy etc. Two examples of control volume are presented to illustrate difference between a deformable control volume and non–deformable control volume. Flow in conduits can be analyzed by looking in a control volume between two locations. The coordinate system could be fixed to the conduit. The control volume chosen is non-deformable control volume. The control volume should be chosen so that the analysis should be simple and dealt with as less as possible issues which are not in question. When a piston pushing gases a good choice of control volume is a deformable control volume that is a head the piston inside the cylinder as shown in Figure 5.2.

Contributors and Attributions

Dr. Genick Bar-Meir. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or later or Potto license.