IŞIK UNIVERSITY

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

MECH3111 MEASUREMENT AND INSTRUMENTATION

LABORATORY REPORT

E-(4) (Boyle’s Law)

(30/11/2023)

(215ME2260)-(Ata G. Ataolu)

Grading Quiz (20) Team Work (20) Results (30) Conclusion (20) Format (10) TOTAL

1
Table of Contents
- Report page….……...…..1
- Introduction………..…....3
- Experimental setup…..….4
- Results and discussion..…5
- Error analysis……..……..6
- Conclusion……….……...7

2
Introduction
Fluid dynamics are used on every aspect of our life. Every machine or contraption
around us uses it at some aspect. One of the key stones of it Boyle’s law. Boyle’s law is
founded by Robert Boyle. This law explains the relation between state of gas, pressure,
volume, temperature and density.

𝑝𝑉 = 𝑛𝑅𝑇

P stands for pressure, V stands for volume, m stands for number of moles, R stands for
gas constand and T stands for temperature.

𝑝𝑉 = 𝑘

This formula is a derived version of Boyle’s Law. k stands for gas constand. K is
derived from mass and temperature of the gas that is used and it can wary.

Boyle’s Law is used on determining the movement on a given volume with known
force. For example, car jacks or any hydrolic system that relies on oil/gas pressure to transmit
force. One of the common usage is applying the pressure on a wider area and transmitting that
force to a smaller area to amplify the force. Since fluids or gasses can be contained on a
system, they can also be used to transmit force by pressurising them.

On figure 1 we can see a common hydrolic car

jack system. Oil is pressurised by a small piston which
is connected to a handle. Balls that are on high and low
pressure pipes are used to prevent feedback. As the
pressure of the green area increases, height of the ram
increases after the force of the mass on the ram and oil
pressure force applied to ram equalized. Since the
pressure on both pistons are same, we can say;
𝐹1 /𝐴1 = 𝐹2 /𝐴2

Figure 1

3
Experimental Setup

The test assembly consists of two oil tanks, a pump, sets of copper tubes and a
electrical switch box. Copper tubes has valves on certain positions to block or limit the flow
of oil and air. Also oil tanks has opennings for installations of pressure gages.

First, exit valves on both tank are opened to equalize the tank pressure to athmosphere
pressure. Note that one tank is used to pressure the other tank thus makes it possible to take
measurements. This setup can be seen on figure 2. Glass tank marked as 2 is pressurised by
the pump. Than transfer valve is slowly
opened to transfer desired amount of oil.
As the oil volume increases on
measurement glass tank, which is marked
as 1, air volume decreases thus its
pressure increases. This change of air
pressure can be seen on the pressure gage
on the electric box.

We first pressurised the number 2

glass tank and than transfered oil to the
glass tank 1 to read the increasing air
pressure with increments of 10mm which
is marked on the tanks. Each mm
corresponds to 0.005 Liters. Total volume
Figure 2
of the tanks are 1 Liter.

After this, we vaccumed the glass tank marked as 2. Than we transferred already
pressurized oil on glass tank 1 with same increments. We noted the pressure and oil volume
on glass tank 1. Finally, after finishing the experiment, we opened the release valves to
equalise both tanks to the athmosphere pressure.

Gage used to measure the air pressure on the glass tank is zeroed to 1 ATM, thus on 1
ATM pressure, it gives 0 ATM value.

4
Results and Discussion
Increasing pressure
Kpa-Gage Kpa-Absolute oil height(mm) oil volume(L) air volume (L) K (Kpa*L)
Experimental values can be seen on 0,00 101,32 50,00 0,25 0,75 75,99
figure 3. As explained on experimental setup, 19,00 120,32 70,00 0,35 0,65 78,21
25,00 126,32 80,00 0,40 0,60 75,79
gage pressure is zeroed to 1 ATM, which 38,00 139,32 90,00 0,45 0,55 76,63
corresponds to 101,32 Kpa or 𝐾𝑁⁄𝑚2 . This 50,00 151,32 100,00 0,50 0,50 75,66

can be seen on the first row of increasing and Decreasing pressure

decreasing pressure experiment set. Note that, Kpa Gage
0,00 101,32 110,00 0,55 0,45 45,59
we equalized the pressures on the glass tanks -2,00 99,32 100,00 0,50 0,50 49,66
while the oil height of the glass tank 1 was on -10,00 91,32 90,00 0,45 0,55 50,23
50mm. Also we started to took the values on -20,00 81,32 80,00 0,40 0,60 48,79
-25,00 76,32 70,00 0,35 0,65 49,61
decreasing pressure test on 110mm where also -30,00 71,32 60,00 0,30 0,70 49,92
the pressure inside was 1 ATM. -35,00 66,32 50,00 0,25 0,75 49,74
-40,00 61,32 40,00 0,20 0,80 49,06
Figure 5
K value can be calculated as 𝑃 ∗ 𝑉 = 𝐾
We must use the real (absolute) pressure to calculate it. K values can be seen on figure 3.

On increasing pressure experiment, the final value of 151,32 Kpa corresponds to 1.49
ATM and the final value on the decreasing pressure test corresponds to 0.6 ATM.

Oil volume can be calculated directly by

𝑜𝑖𝑙 ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 (𝑚𝑚) ∗ 0.005 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠
Air volume can be calculated by
𝑜𝑖𝑙 ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡(𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠) − 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒

Oil height calculation gives how much liters of

oil is there. Also the tank is 1 liters. By substracting the
oil volume by 1 liters we can find the air volume.
Figure 4
On figure 4 and 5, we can see the both
experiments 1/P to V graphs. P is in the form of Kpa
and V is in the form of liters.

K value on above and belove 1ATM is different.

On a scenario where we use an ideal gas, they should
be equal if the amound of gas is same on both cases.

We started with 0,75L of air on the first

experiment. According to the Boyle’s Law;
𝑝𝑉 = 𝑛𝑅𝑇 = 𝑘 Figure 3
moles of the air changes on both experiments thus the k value. In first experiment n value is
constant, also in second experiment. But because we started the experiments with different
amounts of air, n value of the experiments are different. Note that, since gasses are
compressible, as pressure changes volume will also change but not the amount of air
molecules.

5
Error Analysis

First sign of the errors were risen during the experiment while reading the height of
the oil. Because of the oil’s surface tension and its adhesion to the glass, oil slightly climbs
the glass tank. While reading the oil height, this effect can disturb the experiment. To counter
this, readings mus be done under well lid conditions where the reader can seperate the
climbed oil and the surface of the oil.

The scale of the gage had very big increments. This made it hard to get accurate
readings. The pressure increments were most of the time between two lines. According to the
arrows position, we estimated the pressure value. This caused the biggest error amound.

Athought those errors, from figure 4 and 5, we can see the 𝑅2 value on the trend line is
very close to 1. This value represends the coefficient of determination, on other words how
well are the values if the line suppose to be linear. The first experiment shows a closer value
to 1 but we also made less measurements compared to second experiment. Maybe if we did
same amound of readings, 𝑅2 values would be identical or very close to each other. Keep in
mind that 𝑅2 value is the result of k value’s difference.

Because the air is not an ideal gas, the gas constand expected to be vary.

6
Conclusion

In this experiment, we learned how to read a pressure gage, application of Boyle’s

Law and relation between volume and pressure. We saw that as volume differs also the
pressure differs. If there is same amound of gas and the temperature is constant during this
process, their multiplication should be constand, which is stated as gas constand.

Gas constant makes it easier to calculate volume and pressure if one of them is
unknown.