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What is Heat Capacity – Specific Heat Capacity – Definition

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Heat capacity is an extensive property. The heat capacity of a substance per unit mass is called the specific heat capacity (cp). It is proportionality constant between the heat and temperature. Thermal Engineering

Heat Capacity

Table of specific heat capacitiesDifferent substances are affected to different magnitudes by the addition of heat. When a given amount of heat is added to different substances, their temperatures increase by different amounts. This proportionality constant between the heat Q that the object absorbs or loses and the resulting temperature change T of the object is known as the heat capacity C of an object.

C = Q / ΔT

Heat capacity is an extensive property of matter, meaning it is proportional to the size of the system. Heat capacity C has the unit of energy per degree or energy per kelvin. When expressing the same phenomenon as an intensive property, the heat capacity is divided by the amount of substance, mass, or volume, thus the quantity is independent of the size or extent of the sample.

Specific Heat Capacity

The heat capacity of a substance per unit mass is called the specific heat capacity (cp) of the substance. The subscript p indicates that the heat capacity and specific heat capacity apply when the heat is added or removed at constant pressure.

cp = Q / mΔT

Specific Heat Capacity of Ideal Gas

In the Ideal Gas Model, the intensive properties cv and cp are defined for pure, simple compressible substances as partial derivatives of the internal energy u(T, v) and enthalpy h(T, p), respectively:

Specific Heat at Constant Volume and Constant Pressure

where the subscripts v and p denote the variables held fixed during differentiation. The properties cv and cp are referred to as specific heats (or heat capacities) because under certain special conditions they relate the temperature change of a system to the amount of energy added by heat transfer. Their SI units are J/kg K or J/mol K. Two specific heats are defined for gases, one for constant volume (cv) and one for constant pressure (cp).

Molar specific heats - ideal gasAccording to the first law of thermodynamics, for constant volume process with a monatomic ideal gas the molar specific heat will be:

Cv = 3/2R = 12.5 J/mol K

because

U = 3/2nRT

It can be derived that the molar specific heat at constant pressure is:

Cp = Cv + R = 5/2R = 20.8 J/mol K

This Cp is greater than the molar specific heat at constant volume Cv, because energy must now be supplied not only to raise the temperature of the gas but also for the gas to do work because in this case volume changes.

 
References:
Nuclear and Reactor Physics:
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Advanced Reactor Physics:

  1. K. O. Ott, W. A. Bezella, Introductory Nuclear Reactor Statics, American Nuclear Society, Revised edition (1989), 1989, ISBN: 0-894-48033-2.
  2. K. O. Ott, R. J. Neuhold, Introductory Nuclear Reactor Dynamics, American Nuclear Society, 1985, ISBN: 0-894-48029-4.
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  4. E. E. Lewis, W. F. Miller, Computational Methods of Neutron Transport, American Nuclear Society, 1993, ISBN: 0-894-48452-4.

See also:

First Law

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