Compression Factor Calculator

Formula

The formula to calculate the compression factor (Z) is:

\[ Z = \frac{P \times V}{R \times T} \]

Where:

\( Z \) is the compression factor (dimensionless).
\( P \) is the pressure of the gas (atmospheres, atm).
\( V \) is the molar volume of the gas (liters per mole, L/mol).
\( R \) is the ideal gas constant (0.0821 L·atm/mol·K).
\( T \) is the temperature of the gas (Kelvin, K).

What is a Compression Factor?

The compression factor, also known as the compressibility factor, is a correction factor which describes how much a real gas deviates from ideal gas behavior. It is used in thermodynamics and engineering to account for the interactions between gas molecules that are not present in an ideal gas. A compression factor of \( Z = 1 \) corresponds to ideal gas behavior, while \( Z < 1 \) indicates attractive forces between molecules, and \( Z > 1 \) indicates repulsive forces.

Example Calculation

Consider an example where:

Pressure (P): 10 atm
Molar Volume (V): 2 L/mol
Temperature (T): 300 K

Using the formula to calculate the Compression Factor:

\[ Z = \frac{10 \times 2}{0.0821 \times 300} = 0.81 \]

This means that the compression factor for this example is approximately 0.81.