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BulkmodulusWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Bulkmodulus
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Thebulkmodulus( or )ofasubstancemeasuresthesubstance's
resistancetouniformcompression.Itisdefinedastheratiooftheinfinitesimal
pressureincreasetotheresultingrelativedecreaseofthevolume.ItsSIunitis
thepascal,anditsdimensionalformisM1L1T2.[1]

Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6

Illustrationofuniform
compression

Definition
Thermodynamicrelation
Measurement
Selectedvalues
References
Furtherreading

Definition
Thebulkmodulus

canbeformallydefinedbytheequation

where ispressure, isvolume,and

Equivalently

denotesthederivativeofpressurewithrespecttovolume.

whereisdensityanddP/ddenotesthederivativeofpressurewithrespecttodensity.Theinverseofthebulk
modulusgivesasubstance'scompressibility.
Othermodulidescribethematerial'sresponse(strain)tootherkindsofstress:theshearmodulusdescribesthe
responsetoshear,andYoung'smodulusdescribestheresponsetolinearstress.Forafluid,onlythebulkmodulus
ismeaningful.Forananisotropicsolidsuchaswoodorpaper,thesethreemodulidonotcontainenough
informationtodescribeitsbehaviour,andonemustusethefullgeneralizedHooke'slaw.

Thermodynamicrelation
Strictlyspeaking,thebulkmodulusisathermodynamicquantity,andinordertospecifyabulkmodulusitis
necessarytospecifyhowthetemperaturevariesduringcompression:constanttemperature(isothermal
),
constantentropy(isentropic ),andothervariationsarepossible.Suchdistinctionsareespeciallyrelevantfor
gases.
Foranidealgas,theisentropicbulkmodulus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulk_modulus

isgivenby
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andtheisothermalbulkmodulus

isgivenby

where
istheheatcapacityratio
pisthepressure.
Whenthegasisnotideal,theseequationsgiveonlyanapproximationofthebulkmodulus.Inafluid,thebulk
modulusKandthedensitydeterminethespeedofsoundc(pressurewaves),accordingtotheNewtonLaplace
formula

Insolids, and
haveverysimilarvalues.Solidscanalsosustaintransversewaves:forthesematerialsone
additionalelasticmodulus,forexampletheshearmodulus,isneededtodeterminewavespeeds.

Measurement
Itispossibletomeasurethebulkmodulususingpowderdiffractionunderappliedpressure.Itisapropertyofa
fluidwhichshowsitsabilitytochangeitsvolumeunderitspressure.

Selectedvalues
Approximatebulkmodulus(K)forcommonmaterials
Material
BulkmodulusinGPa Bulkmodulusinpsi
35to55

5.8 106

Steel

160

23.2 106

Diamond(at4K)[2]

443

64 106

Glass(seealsodiagrambelowtable)

Amaterialwithabulkmodulusof35GPalosesonepercentofitsvolume
whensubjectedtoanexternalpressureof0.35GPa(~3500bar).
Approximatebulkmodulus(K)forothersubstances
Water
2.2 109Pa(valueincreasesathigherpressures)
Methanol

8.23 108Pa(at20Cand1Atm)

Air

1.42 105Pa(adiabaticbulkmodulus)

Air

1.01 105Pa(constanttemperaturebulkmodulus)

Solidhelium 5

107Pa(approximate)

Influencesofselectedglass
componentadditionsonthebulk
modulusofaspecificbaseglass. [3]

References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulk_modulus

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1."BulkElasticProperties".hyperphysics.GeorgiaStateUniversity.
2.Page52of"IntroductiontoSolidStatePhysics,8thedition"byCharlesKittel,2005,ISBN047141526X
3.Fluegel,Alexander."Bulkmoduluscalculationofglasses".glassproperties.com.

Furtherreading
DeJong,MaartenChen,Wei(2015)."Chartingthecompleteelasticpropertiesofinorganiccrystalline
compounds".ScientificData2:150009.doi:10.1038/sdata.2015.9.
Conversionformulas
Homogeneousisotropiclinearelasticmaterialshavetheirelasticpropertiesuniquelydeterminedbyanytwomoduliamongthesethus,
givenanytwo,anyotheroftheelasticmodulicanbecalculatedaccordingtotheseformulas.
Notes

Therearetwovalidsolutions.
Theplussignleadsto
.
Theminussignleadsto
.

Cannotbeusedwhen

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