The duality of internal energy of ideal gas  

作　　者：Tian Zhao Zengyuan Guo 

机构地区：[1]Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Engineering Mechanics,Tsinghua University

出　　处：《Science Bulletin》2015年第15期1355-1358,共4页科学通报（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(51136001 and 51356001);Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program and Science Fund for Creative Research Groups(51321002)

摘　　要：This contribution starts with the discussion on the classification of energy, and then the behaviors of various thermodynamic processes are analyzed, accompanying with the comparison of the adiabatic compression process of an ideal gas and an elastic rod. All these analyses show that the internal energy of ideal gases exhibits the duality of thermal energy–mechanical energy, that is,the internal energy acts as the thermal energy during the isochoric process, while the internal energy acts as the mechanical energy during the isentropic process. Such behavior of the internal energy is quite different from other types of energy during the energy conversion process because the internal energy of ideal gases exhibits the duality of thermal energy–mechanical energy. Because of this duality, the internal energy of ideal gas is proposed to be refered to as thermodynamic energy rather than thermal energy as indicated in some literature, although it consists of kinetics of the microscopic random motion of particles and can be expressed as the function of temperature only.This contribution starts with the discussion on the classification of energy, and then the behaviors of various thermodynamic processes are analyzed, accompa- nying with the comparison of the adiabatic compression process of an ideal gas and an elastic rod. All these anal- yses show that the internal energy of ideal gases exhibits the duality of thermal energy-mechanical energy, that is, the internal energy acts as the thermal energy during the isochoric process, while the internal energy acts as the mechanical energy during the isentropic process. Such behavior of the internal energy is quite different from other types of energy during the energy conversion process because the internal energy of ideal gases exhibits the duality of thermal energy-mechanical energy. Because of this duality, the internal energy of ideal gas is proposed to be refered to as thermodynamic energy rather than thermal energy as indicated in some literature, although it consists of kinetics of the microscopic random motion of particles and can be expressed as the function of temperature only.

关 键 词：Internal energy Mechanical energy Ideal gas DUALITY 

分 类 号：O414.1[理学—理论物理] O31[理学—物理]