Pound per square inch | |
---|---|
General information | |
Unit system | Imperial units, US customary units |
Unit of | Pressure, stress |
Symbol | psi, lbf/in2 |
Conversions | |
1 psi in ... | ... is equal to ... |
SI units | 6.894757 kPa |
The pound per square inch (abbreviation: psi) or, more accurately, pound-force per square inch (symbol: lbf/in2), [1] is a unit of measurement of pressure or of stress based on avoirdupois units and used primarily in the United States. It is the pressure resulting from a force with magnitude of one pound-force applied to an area of one square inch. In SI units, 1 psi is approximately 6,895 pascals.
The pound per square inch absolute (psia) is used to make it clear that the pressure is relative to a vacuum rather than the ambient atmospheric pressure. Since atmospheric pressure at sea level is around 14.7 psi (101 kilopascals ), this will be added to any pressure reading made in air at sea level. The converse is pound per square inch gauge (psig), indicating that the pressure is relative to atmospheric pressure. For example, a bicycle tire pumped up to 65 psig in a local atmospheric pressure at sea level (14.7 psi) will have a pressure of 79.7 psia (14.7 psi + 65 psi). [2] [3] When gauge pressure is referenced to something other than ambient atmospheric pressure, then the unit is pound per square inch differential (psid).
The kilopound per square inch (ksi) is a scaled unit derived from psi, equivalent to a thousand psi (1000 lbf/in2).
ksi are not widely used for gas pressures. They are mostly used in materials science, where the tensile strength of a material is measured as a large number of psi. [4]
The conversion in SI units is 1 ksi = 6.895 MPa, or 1 MPa = 0.145 ksi.
The megapound per square inch (Mpsi) is another multiple equal to a million psi. It is used in mechanics for the elastic modulus of materials, especially for metals. [5]
The conversion in SI units is 1 Mpsi = 6.895 GPa, or 1 GPa = 0.145 Mpsi.
The conversions to and from SI are computed from exact definitions but result in a repeating decimal. [6] [7]
As the pascal is a very small unit relative to industrial pressures, the kilopascal is commonly used. 1000 kPa ≈ 145 lbf/in2.
Approximate conversions (rounded to some arbitrary number of digits, except when denoted by "≡") are shown in the following table.
Pascal | Bar | Technical atmosphere | Standard atmosphere | Torr | Pound per square inch | |
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(Pa) | (bar) | (at) | (atm) | (Torr) | (lbf/in2) | |
1 Pa | — | 1 Pa = 10−5 bar | 1 Pa = 1.0197×10−5 at | 1 Pa = 9.8692×10−6 atm | 1 Pa = 7.5006×10−3 Torr | 1 Pa = 0.000145037737730 lbf/in2 |
1 bar | 105 | — | = 1.0197 | = 0.98692 | = 750.06 | = 14.503773773022 |
1 at | 98066.5 | 0.980665 | — | 0.9678411053541 | 735.5592401 | 14.2233433071203 |
1 atm | ≡ 101325 | ≡ 1.01325 | 1.0332 | — | 760 | 14.6959487755142 |
1 Torr | 133.322368421 | 0.001333224 | 0.00135951 | 1/760 ≈ 0.001315789 | — | 0.019336775 |
1 lbf/in2 | 6894.757293168 | 0.068947573 | 0.070306958 | 0.068045964 | 51.714932572 | — |
Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the imperial horsepower as in "hp" or "bhp" which is about 745.7 watts, and the metric horsepower as in "cv" or "PS" which is approximately 735.5 watts.
Pressure is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the ambient pressure.
United States customary units form a system of measurement units commonly used in the United States and most U.S. territories, since being standardized and adopted in 1832. The United States customary system developed from English units that were in use in the British Empire before the U.S. became an independent country. The United Kingdom's system of measures evolved by 1824 to create the imperial system, which was officially adopted in 1826, changing the definitions of some of its units. Consequently, while many U.S. units are essentially similar to their imperial counterparts, there are noticeable differences between the systems.
Atmospheric pressure, also known as air pressure or barometric pressure, is the pressure within the atmosphere of Earth. The standard atmosphere is a unit of pressure defined as 101,325 Pa (1,013.25 hPa), which is equivalent to 1,013.25 millibars, 760 mm Hg, 29.9212 inches Hg, or 14.696 psi. The atm unit is roughly equivalent to the mean sea-level atmospheric pressure on Earth; that is, the Earth's atmospheric pressure at sea level is approximately 1 atm.
The pascal is the unit of pressure in the International System of Units (SI). It is also used to quantify internal pressure, stress, Young's modulus, and ultimate tensile strength. The unit, named after Blaise Pascal, is an SI coherent derived unit defined as one newton per square metre (N/m2). It is also equivalent to 10 barye in the CGS system. Common multiple units of the pascal are the hectopascal, which is equal to one millibar, and the kilopascal, which is equal to one centibar.
The pound of force or pound-force is a unit of force used in some systems of measurement, including English Engineering units and the foot–pound–second system.
Ultimate tensile strength is the maximum stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before breaking. In brittle materials, the ultimate tensile strength is close to the yield point, whereas in ductile materials, the ultimate tensile strength can be higher.
The field of strength of materials typically refers to various methods of calculating the stresses and strains in structural members, such as beams, columns, and shafts. The methods employed to predict the response of a structure under loading and its susceptibility to various failure modes takes into account the properties of the materials such as its yield strength, ultimate strength, Young's modulus, and Poisson's ratio. In addition, the mechanical element's macroscopic properties such as its length, width, thickness, boundary constraints and abrupt changes in geometry such as holes are considered.
The bar is a metric unit of pressure defined as 100,000 Pa (100 kPa), though not part of the International System of Units (SI). A pressure of 1 bar is slightly less than the current average atmospheric pressure on Earth at sea level. By the barometric formula, 1 bar is roughly the atmospheric pressure on Earth at an altitude of 111 metres at 15 °C.
The kilogram-force, or kilopond, is a non-standard gravitational metric unit of force. It is not accepted for use with the International System of Units (SI) and is deprecated for most uses. The kilogram-force is equal to the magnitude of the force exerted on one kilogram of mass in a 9.80665 m/s2 gravitational field. That is, it is the weight of a kilogram under standard gravity. One kilogram-force is defined as 9.80665 N. Similarly, a gram-force is 9.80665 mN, and a milligram-force is 9.80665 μN.
The standard atmosphere is a unit of pressure defined as 101325 Pa. It is sometimes used as a reference pressure or standard pressure. It is approximately equal to Earth's average atmospheric pressure at sea level.
A standard cubic foot (scf) is a unit representing the amount of gas (such as natural gas) contained in a volume of one cubic foot at reference temperature and pressure conditions. It is the unit commonly used when following the customary system, a collection of standards set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Another unit used for the same purpose is the standard cubic metre (Sm3), derived from SI units, representing the amount of gas contained in a volume of one cubic meter at different reference conditions. The reference conditions depend on the type of gas and differ from other standard temperature and pressure conditions.
In the field of solid mechanics, torsion is the twisting of an object due to an applied torque. Torsion could be defined as strain or angular deformation, and is measured by the angle a chosen section is rotated from its equilibrium position. The resulting stress is expressed in either the pascal (Pa), an SI unit for newtons per square metre, or in pounds per square inch (psi) while torque is expressed in newton metres (N·m) or foot-pound force (ft·lbf). In sections perpendicular to the torque axis, the resultant shear stress in this section is perpendicular to the radius.
Copper units of pressure or CUP, and the related lead units of pressure or LUP, are terms applied to pressure measurements used in the field of internal ballistics for the estimation of chamber pressures in firearms. These terms were adopted by convention to indicate that the pressure values were measured by copper crusher and lead crusher gauges respectively. In recent years, they have been replaced by the adoption of more modern piezoelectric pressure gauges that more accurately measure chamber pressures and generally give significantly higher pressure values. This nomenclature was adopted to avoid confusion and the potentially dangerous interchange of pressure values and standards made by different types of pressure gauges. For example, it makes little sense to describe a maximum pressure as 300 MPa, and in case the pressure has been measured according to the CUP procedure it should be denoted as 300 MPa (CUP).
The foot–pound–second system is a system of units built on three fundamental units: the foot for length, the (avoirdupois) pound for either mass or force, and the second for time.
A36 steel is a common structural steel alloy used in the United States. The A36 standard was established by the ASTM International. The standard was published in 1960 and has been updated several times since. Prior to 1960, the dominant standards for structural steel in North America were A7 and A9. Note that SAE/AISI A7 and A9 tool steels are not the same as the obsolete ASTM A7 and A9 structural steels.
Inches of water is a non-SI unit for pressure. It is also given as inches of water gauge (iwg or in.w.g.), inches water column (inch wc, in. WC, " wc, etc. or just wc or WC), inAq, Aq, or inH2O. The units are conventionally used for measurement of certain pressure differentials such as small pressure differences across an orifice, or in a pipeline or shaft, or before and after a coil in an HVAC unit.
Sectional density is the ratio of an object's mass to its cross sectional area with respect to a given axis. It conveys how well an object's mass is distributed to overcome resistance along that axis.
A pound-foot (lb⋅ft), abbreviated from pound-force foot, is a unit of torque representing one pound of force acting at a perpendicular distance of one foot from a pivot point. Conversely one foot pound-force is the moment about an axis that applies one pound-force at a radius of one foot.
The metresea water (msw) is a metric unit of pressure used in underwater diving. It is defined as one tenth of a bar.
A metal's yield strength and ultimate tensile strength values are expressed in tons per square inch, pounds per square inch or thousand pounds (KSI) per square inch. For example, a tensile strength of a steel that can withstand 40,000 pounds of force per square inch may be expressed as 40,000 PSI or 40 KSI (with K being the denominator for thousands of pounds). The tensile strength of steel may also be shown in MPa, or megapascal.