Working fluid is the matter contained within boundaries of a system.
Matter can be in solid, liquid, vapor or gaseous phase. The working fluid in applied thermodynamic
problems is either approximated by a perfect gas or a substance which
exists as liquid and vapor. The state of the working fluid is defined by
certain characteristics known as properties. Some of the properties which are important in
thermodynamic problems are:
The thermodynamic properties for a pure substance can be related by the general relationship,
f(P,v,T)=0, which represents a surface in the (P,v,T) space. The thermodynamic laws do not give any
information about the nature of this relationship for the substances in the liquid and vapor phases. These
properties may only be related by setting up measurements. The measured data can be described by
equations obtained e.g. by curve fitting. In this case the equations should be
thermodynamically consistent.
The state of any pure working fluid can be defined completely by just knowing two independent properties
of the fluid. This makes it possible to plot state changes on 2D diagrams such as:
