Pressure

Information about Pressure



Enlarge picture
The use of water pressure - the Captain Cook Memorial Jet in Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, Australia.
Pressure (symbol: p) is the force per unit area applied on a surface in a direction perpendicular to that surface.

Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.

Pressure is the amount of force that presses on a certain area. If you make the force on an are bigger, you increase the pressure on the area. Making the area smaller and keeping the force the same also increases the pressure. Nigelleelee 08:24, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Definition

Formulaic

Conjugate variables
of thermodynamics
PressureVolume
(Stress)(Strain)
TemperatureEntropy
Chem. potentialParticle no.
Mathematically:


where:
is the pressure,
is the normal force,
is the area.


Pressure is a scalar, and has SI units of pascals; 1 Pa = 1 N/m2.

(CHANGING PRESSURE)

High pressure can be a nuisance or an advantage. Wide tyres reduce pressure. They help to stop vehicles sinking into mud or snow. Walking in deep snow is made easier by wearing snow shoes. They spread a person's weight over a much bigger area than normal shoes. Pressure can be increased by making the area that the force presses on smaller. Nigelleelee 08:31, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Pressure is transmitted to solid boundaries or across arbitrary sections of fluid normal to these boundaries or sections at every point. It is a fundamental parameter in thermodynamics and it is conjugate to volume.

(PRESSURE UNDER WATER)

The weight of an object pushes down on the surface it is resting on. This causes pressure on the surface. Imagine that object is replaced by a block of water. There would still be pressure. This is what happens under the water. The further down into water you go, the bigger the weight of water above you, and the greater the pressure is. The difference under water is that the pressure pushes down, up and sideways as well. In fact, it pushes in all directions. Nigelleelee 08:31, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Units

Enlarge picture
Mercury column


The SI unit for pressure is the pascal (Pa), equal to one newton per square metre (N·m-2 or kg·m-1·s-2). This special name for the unit was added in 1971; before that, pressure in SI was expressed simply as N/m2.

Non-SI measures such as pound per square inch (psi) and bar are used in some parts of the world. The cgs unit of pressure is the barye (ba), equal to 1 dyn·cm-2. Pressure is sometimes expressed in grams-force/cm2, or as kg/cm² and the like without properly identifying the force units. But using the names kilogram, gram, kilogram-force, or gram-force (or their symbols) as units of force is expressly forbidden in SI. The technical atmosphere (symbol: at) is 1 kgf/cm2.

Some meteorologists prefer the hectopascal (hPa) for atmospheric air pressure, which is equivalent to the older unit millibar (mbar). Similar pressures are given in kilopascals (kPa) in most other fields, where the hecto prefix is rarely used. The unit inch of mercury (inHg, see below) is still used in the United States. Oceanographers usually measure underwater pressure in decibars (dbar) because an increase in pressure of 1 dbar is approximately equal to an increase in depth of 1 meter. Scuba divers often use a manometric rule of thumb: the pressure exerted by ten metres depth of water is approximately equal to one atmosphere.

The standard atmosphere (atm) is an established constant. It is approximately equal to typical air pressure at earth mean sea level and is defined as follows:
standard atmosphere = 101325 Pa = 101.325 kPa = 1013.25 hPa.


Because pressure is commonly measured by its ability to displace a column of liquid in a manometer, pressures are often expressed as a depth of a particular fluid (e.g., inches of water). The most common choices are mercury (Hg) and water; water is nontoxic and readily available, while mercury's high density allows for a shorter column (and so a smaller manometer) to measure a given pressure. The pressure exerted by a column of liquid of height h and density ρ is given by the hydrostatic pressure equation p = ρgh. Fluid density and local gravity can vary from one reading to another depending on local factors, so the height of a fluid column does not define pressure precisely. When millimetres of mercury or inches of mercury are quoted today, these units are not based on a physical column of mercury; rather, they have been given precise definitions that can be expressed in terms of SI units. The water-based units still depend on the density of water, a measured, rather than defined, quantity. These manometric units are still encountered in many fields. Blood pressure is measured in millimetres of mercury in most of the world, and lung pressures in centimeters of water are still common.

Presently or formerly popular pressure units include the following:
  • atmosphere
  • manometric units:
  • centimetre, inch, and millimetre of mercury (torr)
  • millimetre, centimetre, metre, inch, and foot of water
  • imperial units:
  • kip, ton-force (short), ton-force (long), pound-force, ounce-force, and poundal per square inch
  • pound-force, ton-force (short), and ton-force (long)
  • non-SI metric units:
  • bar, decibar, millibar
  • kilogram-force, or kilopond, per square centimetre (technical atmosphere)
  • gram-force and tonne-force (metric ton-force) per square centimetre
  • barye (dyne per square centimetre)
  • kilogram-force and tonne-force per square metre
  • sthene per square metre (pieze)
Pressure Units
 
pascal
(Pa)

bar
(bar)
technical atmosphere
(at)

atmosphere
(atm)

torr
(mmHg)
pound-force per
square inch

(psi)
1 Pa≡ 1 N/m210−51.019710−59.869210−67.500610−3145.0410−6
1 bar100 000≡ 106 dyn/cm21.01970.98692750.0614.504
1 at98 066.50.980665≡ 1 kgf/cm20.96784735.5614.223
1 atm101 3251.013251.0332≡ 1 atm76014.696
1 torr133.3221.333210−31.359510−31.315810−3≡ 1 mmHg19.33710−3
1 psi6 894.7668.94810−370.30710−368.04610−351.715≡ 1 lbf/in2
Example reading:  1 Pa = 1 N/m2  = 10−5 bar  = 10.19710−6 at  = 9.869210−6 atm, etc.
Note:  mmHg is an abbreviation for millimetres of mercury.

Examples

As an example of varying pressures, a finger can be pressed against a wall without making any lasting impression; however, the same finger pushing a thumbtack can easily damage the wall. Although the force applied to the surface is the same, the thumbtack applies more pressure because the point concentrates that force into a smaller area. Pressure is transmitted to solid boundaries or across arbitrary sections of fluid normal to these boundaries or sections at every point. Unlike stress, pressure is defined as a scalar quantity.

The gradient of pressure is called the force density. For gases, pressure is sometimes measured not as an absolute pressure, but relative to atmospheric pressure; such measurements are called gauge pressure (also sometimes spelled gage pressure).[1] An example of this is the air pressure in an automobile tire, which might be said to be "220 kPa", but is actually 220 kPa above atmospheric pressure. Since atmospheric pressure at sea level is about 100 kPa, the absolute pressure in the tire is therefore about 320 kPa. In technical work, this is written "a gauge pressure of 220 kPa". Where space is limited, such as on pressure gauges, name plates, graph labels, and table headings, the use of a modifier in parentheses, such as "kPa (gauge)" or "kPa (absolute)", is permitted. In non-SI technical work, a gauge pressure is sometimes written as "32 psig", though the other methods explained above that avoid attaching characters to the unit of pressure are preferred.[2]

Gauge pressure is the relevant measure of pressure wherever one is interested in the stress on storage vessels and the plumbing components of fluidics systems. However, whenever equation-of-state properties, such as densities or changes in densities, must be calculated, pressures must be expressed in terms of their absolute values. For instance, if the atmospheric pressure is 100 kPa, a gas (such as helium) at 200 kPa (gauge) (300 kPa [absolute]) is 50 % more dense than the same gas at 100 kPa (gauge) (200 kPa [absolute]). Focusing on gauge values, one might erroneously conclude that the first sample had twice the density of the second.

Scalar nature

In a static gas, the gas as a whole does not appear to move. The individual molecules of the gas, however, are in constant random motion. Because we are dealing with an extremely large number of molecules and because the motion of the individual molecules is random in every direction, we do not detect any motion. If we enclose the gas within a container, we detect a pressure in the gas from the molecules colliding with the walls of our container. We can put the walls of our container anywhere inside the gas, and the force per unit area (the pressure) is the same. We can shrink the size of our "container" down to an infinitely small point, and the pressure has a single value at that point. Therefore, pressure is a scalar quantity, not a vector quantity. It has a magnitude but no direction associated with it. Pressure acts in all directions at a point inside a gas. At the surface of a gas, the pressure force acts perpendicular to the surface.

A closely related quantity is the stress tensor σ, which relates the vector force F to the vector area A via


This tensor may be divided up into a scalar part (pressure) and a traceless tensor part shear. The shear tensor gives the force in directions parallel to the surface, usually due to viscous or frictional forces. The stress tensor is sometimes called the pressure tensor, but in the following, the term "pressure" will refer only to the scalar pressure.

Types

Explosion or deflagration pressures

Explosion or deflagration pressures are the result of the ignition of explosible gases, mists, dust/air suspensions, in unconfined and confined spaces.

Negative pressures

While pressures are generally positive, there are several situations in which a negative pressure may be encountered:
  • When dealing in relative (gauge) pressures. For instance, an absolute pressure of 80 kPa may be described as a gauge pressure of -21 kPa (i.e., 21 kPa below an atmospheric pressure of 101 kPa).
  • When attractive forces (e.g., Van der Waals forces) between the particles of a fluid exceed repulsive forces. Such scenarios are generally unstable since the particles will move closer together until repulsive forces balance attractive forces. Negative pressure exists in the transpiration pull of plants.
  • The Casimir effect can create a small attractive force due to interactions with vacuum energy; this force is sometimes termed 'vacuum pressure' (not to be confused with the negative gauge pressure of a vacuum).
  • Depending on how the orientation of a surface is chosen, the same distribution of forces may be described either as a positive pressure along one surface normal, or as a negative pressure acting along the opposite surface normal.
  • In the cosmological constant.

Hydrostatic pressure (head pressure)

Hydrostatic pressure is the pressure due to the weight of a fluid.


where:
ρ (rho) is the density of the fluid (i.e., the practical density of fresh water is 1000 kg/m3);
g is the acceleration due to gravity (approximately 9.81 m/s2 on earth's surface);
h is the height of the fluid column (in metres). Other units can be used if the rest of the units used in the equation are defined in a consistent way.
See also Pascal's law.

Stagnation pressure

Stagnation pressure is the pressure a fluid exerts when it is forced to stop moving. Consequently, although a fluid moving at higher speed will have a lower static pressure, it may have a higher stagnation pressure when forced to a standstill. Static pressure and stagnation pressure are related by the Mach number of the fluid. In addition, there can be differences in pressure due to differences in the elevation (height) of the fluid. See Bernoulli's equation (note: Bernoulli's equation only applies for incompressible flow).

The pressure of a moving fluid can be measured using a Pitot tube, or one of its variations such as a Kiel probe or Cobra probe, connected to a manometer. Depending on where the inlet holes are located on the probe, it can measure static pressure or stagnation pressure.

Surface pressure

There is a two-dimensional analog of pressure -- the lateral force per unit length applied on a line perpendicular to the force.

Surface pressure is denoted by π and shares many similar properties with three-dimensional pressure. Properties of surface chemicals can be investigated by measuring pressure/area isotherms, as the two-dimensional analog of Boyle's law, πA = k, at constant temperature.

See also

Notes

1. ^ The preferred spelling varies by country and even by industry. Further, both spellings are often used within a particular industry or country. Industries in British English-speaking countries typically use the "gauge" spelling. Many of the largest American manufacturers of pressure transducers and instrumentation use the spelling "gage pressure" in their most formal documentation (Honeywell-Sensotec’s FAQ page and Fluke Corporation’s product search page).
2. ^ NIST, Rules and Style Conventions for Expressing Values of Quantities, Sect. 7.4.

External links



Peer pressure is a term describing the pressure exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change their attitude, behavior and/or morals, to conform to, for example, the group's actions,
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"Pressure"
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In physics, force is an action or agency that causes a body of mass m to accelerate. It may be experienced as a lift, a push, or a pull. The acceleration of the body is proportional to the vector sum of all forces acting on it (known as net force or resultant force).
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Area is a physical quantity expressing the size of a part of a surface. The term Surface area is the summation of the areas of the exposed sides of an object.

Units

Units for measuring surface area include:
square metre = SI derived unit

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surface normal, or simply normal, to a flat surface is a vector which is perpendicular to that surface. A normal to a non-flat surface at a point P on the surface is a vector perpendicular to the tangent plane to that surface at P.
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conjugate variables such as pressure/volume or temperature/entropy. In fact all thermodynamic potentials are expressed in terms of conjugate pairs.

For a mechanical system, a small increment of energy is the product of a force times a small displacement.
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The volume of a solid object is the three-dimensional concept of how much space it occupies, often quantified numerically. One-dimensional figures (such as lines) and two-dimensional shapes (such as squares) are assigned zero volume in the three-dimensional space.
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Stress is a measure of force per unit area within a body. It is a body's internal distribution of force per area that reacts to external applied loads. Stress is often broken down into its shear and normal components as these have unique physical significance.
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strain is the geometrical expression of deformation caused by the action of stress on a physical body. Strain is calculated by first assuming a change between two body states: the beginning state and the final state.
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trillion fold).]]

Temperature is a physical property of a system that underlies the common notions of hot and cold; something that is hotter generally has the greater temperature. Temperature is one of the principal parameters of thermodynamics.
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Ice melting - a classic example of entropy increasing[1] described in 1862 by Rudolf Clausius as an increase in the disgregation of the molecules of the body of ice.
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In thermodynamics and chemistry, chemical potential, symbolized by μ, is a term introduced in 1876 by the American mathematical physicist Willard Gibbs, which he defined as follows:

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The particle number, N, is the number of so called 'elementary particles' (or elementary constituents) in a thermodynamical system. The particle number is a fundamental parameter in thermodynamics and it is conjugate to the chemical potential.
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In physics, the normal force (or in some books N) is the component, perpendicular to the surface of contact, of the contact force exerted by, for example, the surface of a floor or wall, on an object, preventing the object from entering the floor or wall.
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scalar is a simple physical quantity that does not depend on direction, and is therefore not changed by coordinate system rotations (in Newtonian mechanics), or by Lorentz transformations (in relativity). (Contrast to vector.
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Si, si, or SI may refer to (all SI unless otherwise stated):

In language:
  • One of two Italian words:
  • (accented) for "yes"
  • si

..... Click the link for more information.
The pascal (symbol: Pa) is the SI derived unit of pressure or stress (also: Young's modulus and tensile strength). It is a measure of perpendicular force per unit area i.e. equivalent to one newton per square meter or one Joule per cubic meter.
..... Click the link for more information.
Thermodynamics (from the Greek θερμη, therme, meaning "heat" and δυναμις, dynamis, meaning "power") is a branch of physics that studies the effects of changes in temperature, pressure, and volume on
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conjugate variables such as pressure/volume or temperature/entropy. In fact all thermodynamic potentials are expressed in terms of conjugate pairs.

For a mechanical system, a small increment of energy is the product of a force times a small displacement.
..... Click the link for more information.
The volume of a solid object is the three-dimensional concept of how much space it occupies, often quantified numerically. One-dimensional figures (such as lines) and two-dimensional shapes (such as squares) are assigned zero volume in the three-dimensional space.
..... Click the link for more information.
Si, si, or SI may refer to (all SI unless otherwise stated):

In language:
  • One of two Italian words:
  • (accented) for "yes"
  • si

..... Click the link for more information.
The pascal (symbol: Pa) is the SI derived unit of pressure or stress (also: Young's modulus and tensile strength). It is a measure of perpendicular force per unit area i.e. equivalent to one newton per square meter or one Joule per cubic meter.
..... Click the link for more information.
The newton (symbol: N) is the SI derived unit of force, named after Sir Isaac Newton in recognition of his work on classical mechanics.

Definition

A newton
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square metre (also spelled meter, see spelling differences) is the SI derived unit of area, with symbol m². It is defined as the area of a square whose sides measure exactly one metre.
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A pound or pound-force (abbreviations: lb, lbf, or lbf) is a unit of force. Pound is also the name of a unit of mass. One pound-force is approximately equal to the gravitational force exerted on a mass of one avoirdupois pound on the
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1 inch =
SI units
010−3 m 0 mm
US customary / Imperial units
010−3 ft 010−3 yd


An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes,  
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pound per square inch or, more accurately, pound-force per square inch (symbol: psi or lbf/sq in) is a unit of pressure or of stress based on avoirdupois units.
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The bar (symbol bar), decibar (symbol dbar) and the millibar (symbol mbar, also mb) are units of pressure. They are not SI units, but they are accepted for use with the SI.
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centimetre-gram-second system (CGS) is a system of physical units. It is always the same for mechanical units, but there are several variants of electric additions. It was replaced by the MKS, or metre-kilogram-second system, which in turn was replaced by the International
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barye (symbol: Ba) was in France a centimetre-gram-second (CGS) unit of pressure. It is equal to 1 dyne per square centimetre.

Other names: barad, barrie, bary, baryd, baryed, barie.

1 Ba = 0.1 Pa = 0.
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