Virial equation of state

The virial equation of state is used to describe the behavior of diluted gases. It is usually written as an expansion of the compressibility factor, $Z$, in terms of either the density or the pressure. Such an expansion was first introduced by Kammerlingh Onnes. In the first case:

${\frac {pV}{Nk_{B}T}}=Z=1+\sum _{k=2}^{\infty }B_{k}(T)\rho ^{k-1}$.

where

• $p$ is the pressure
• $V$ is the volume
• $N$ is the number of molecules
• $T$ is the temperature
• $k_{B}$ is the Boltzmann constant
• Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \rho \equiv \frac{N}{V} } is the (number) density
• Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle B_k\left( T \right) } is called the k-th virial coefficient

Virial coefficients

The second virial coefficient represents the initial departure from ideal-gas behavior

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle B_{2}(T)= \frac{N_A}{2V} \int .... \int (1-e^{-\Phi/k_BT}) ~d\tau_1 d\tau_2}

where Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle N_A} is Avogadros number and $d\tau _{1}$ and Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d\tau_2} are volume elements of two different molecules in configuration space.

One can write the third virial coefficient as

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle B_{3}(T)= - \frac{1}{3V} \int \int \int f_{12} f_{13} f_{23} dr_1 dr_2 dr_3}

where f is the Mayer f-function (see also: Cluster integrals). See also:

• M. S. Wertheim "Fluids of hard convex molecules III. The third virial coefficient", Molecular Physics 89 pp. 1005-1017 (1996)

Convergence

See Ref. 3.

References

1. H. Kammerlingh Onnes "", Communications from the Physical Laboratory Leiden 71 (1901)
2. James A Beattie and Walter H Stockmayer "Equations of state", Reports on Progress in Physics 7 pp. 195-229 (1940)
3. J. L. Lebowitz and O. Penrose "Convergence of Virial Expansions", Journal of Mathematical Physics 5 pp. 841-847 (1964)