Specific Volume

Specific volume, abbreviated as \(\upsilon\) (Greek symbol upsilon), is the volume in a unit of mass.  Specific volume is a intensive variable whose physical quantity value does not depend on the amount of the substance for which it is measured.  Specific volume is the reciprocal of density, a substance with a higher density will have a lower specific volume.

Specific volume is a useful property because it provides information about how closely packed the particles or molecules of a substance are.  For gases, specific volume can change significantly with changes in pressure and temperature due to their compressibility.  In contrast, for liquids and solids, the specific volume doesn't change as dramatically with changes in pressure and temperature.  Specific volume is a measure of the amount of space a given mass of substance occupies and is used in thermodynamics and fluid dynamics to analyze the behavior of substances in different states.

 

Specific volume formula
\(\large{  \upsilon = 1 \;+\; e   }\)
Symbol	English	Metric
\(\large{ \upsilon }\)  (Greek symbol upsilon) = specific volume	\(\large{\frac{ft^3}{lbm}}\)	\(\large{\frac{m^3}{kg}}\)
\(\large{ e } \) = void ratio	\(\large{dimensionless}\)