Piezothermal effect in a spinning gas
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Updated: Mar 12, 2026

Fabrication and Characterization of Thickness Mode Piezoelectric Devices for Atomization and Acoustofluidics
Published on: August 5, 2020
1Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
Abstract:
A spinning gas, heated adiabatically through axial compression, is known to exhibit a rotation-dependent heat capacity. However, as equilibrium is approached, an effect is identified here wherein the temperature does not grow homogeneously in the radial direction, but develops a temperature differential with the hottest region on axis, at the maximum of the centrifugal potential energy. This phenomenon, which we call a piezothermal effect, is shown to grow bilinearly with the compression rate and the amplitude of the potential. Numerical simulations confirm a simple model of this effect, which can be generalized to other forms of potential energy and methods of heating.
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