Question

Write a function in MATLAB called WORKDONE to calculate the area under the curve of a PV diagram for a thermodynamic process, based on a single input, κ, the specific heat ratio. The values for P and V are defined below. The output of the function should be a single number equal to the area under the curve, found using the trapz command. Include these parameters in your function: V=0.001:0.001:0.02

P = 380/V^k

Answer 1

Following is the code in WORKDONE.m :

function res = WORKDONE(k)
    
    %
    % Write the given definitions.
    %
    V = 0.001 : 0.001 : 0.02;
    
    %
    % While writing P, we must use dot-notations so that P is also a
    % vector.
    %
    P = 380 ./ (V .^ k);
    
    %
    % The work done is the area of P-V graph with the V-axis.
    % Thus, while using Matlab's trapz() method, we pass P as a vector.
    %
    res = trapz(P);
    
end

Following are some sample runs :

>> 
>> WORKDONE(1)

ans =

   1.1676e+06

>> WORKDONE(0.1)

ans =

   1.1651e+04

>> WORKDONE(12.3)

ans =

   1.5098e+39

>>