Clapeyron, Benoit Paul Emile

Lead Author: Cutler J. Cleveland (other articles)
Article Topics: Biographies and Energy people
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Tom Lawrence (other articles)
Last Updated: December 8, 2009

Benoit Paul Emile Clapeyron (1799-1864), French engineer who developed a mathematical reformulation of Sadi Carnot's Carnot cycle. Clapeyron originally designed locomotives and bridges; however, after he was he was offered a chair at the École des Mineurs in St Étienne, France, Clapeyron turned his attention to the study of thermodynamics. He expressed Carnot's principle using a graphical pressure and volume representation as well as through algebraic expressions. Carnot's work was not well-known before Clapeyron's developments. Clapeyron also found a formula to describe the heat of vaporization of a liquid as a function of its temperature and volume change upon vaporization, called Clapeyron's equation.

Further Reading

 

Citation
Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Tom Lawrence (Topic Editor). 2009. "Clapeyron, Benoit Paul Emile." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth December 8, 2006; Last revised December 8, 2009; Retrieved March 16, 2010]. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Clapeyron,_Benoit_Paul_Emile>
Editing this Article
We invite all scientists, environmental professionals and science attentive individuals to help improve this article and the EoE by clicking here
CITE
EMAIL
PRINT