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11.7 Isothermal Flow

  • Page ID
    812
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    In this section a model dealing with gas that flows through a long tube is described. This model has a applicability to situations which occur in a relatively long distance and where heat transfer is relatively rapid so that the temperature can be treated, for engineering purposes, as a constant. For example, this model is applicable when a natural gas flows over several hundreds of meters. Such situations are common in large cities in U.S.A. where natural gas is used for heating. It is more predominant (more applicable) in situations where the gas is pumped over a length of kilometers.

    Fig. 11.17 Control volume for isothermal flow.

    The high speed of the gas is obtained or explained by the combination of heat transfer and the friction to the flow. For a long pipe, the pressure difference reduces the density of the gas. For instance, in a perfect gas, the density is inverse of the pressure (it has to be kept in mind that the gas undergoes an isothermal process.). To maintain conservation of mass, the velocity increases inversely to the pressure. At critical point the velocity reaches the speed of sound at the exit and hence the flow will be choked.

    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.


    This page titled 11.7 Isothermal Flow is shared under a GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.


    This page titled 11.7 Isothermal Flow is shared under a GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Genick Bar-Meir via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.