Abstract
The van der Waals equation of state is obtained as the first- order correction to the ideal gas equation and some observational consequences are discussed: the correlation of the critical parameters, the Joule–Thomson coefficient, the inversion curve, and the determination of the vapor pressure. The Law of Corresponding States is formulated and discussed in several aspects. The notion of generalized charts is introduced with particular reference to the compressibility chart. The behavior in the proximity of the critical point is briefly examined.
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Notes
- 1.
It is important to remember that we are referring to interactions between pairs of molecules. This assumption is justified when the density is low enough which is equivalent to say that the range of the interactions is small enough that the probability of finding three or more molecules at a distance below the range of the interaction potential \(\mathcal {U}\) becomes negligible.
- 2.
A detailed discussion is of major importance and for those interested in technical applications can be found in [10].
- 3.
Not to be confused with the coefficient of compressibility \(\chi =-V^{-1}\left( {\partial V}/{\partial p}\right) \).
- 4.
This is a statement according to the Law of Corresponding States. It can be formulated by observing that, for \(\tilde{t}\lesssim 0.65\), Z is sufficiently near to 1.
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Saggion, A., Faraldo, R., Pierno, M. (2019). van der Waals Equation. In: Thermodynamics. UNITEXT for Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26976-0_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26976-0_8
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