pressure gradient
Noun
Meaning
pressure gradient (plural pressure gradients)
The rate of decrease (gradient) of pressure in space at a fixed time. The term is sometimes used to denote simply the magnitude of the gradient of the pressure field.
Synonyms
Examples
A pressure gradient is applied; as a result, water moves across the very permeable membrane rapidly, "dragging" along with it many dissolved substances, including ones with large molecular weights, which are not cleared as well by hemodialysis.
At zero to one-third bar suction, water is pushed through soil from the point of its application under the force of gravity and the pressure gradient created by the pressure of the water; this is called saturated flow.
Because the Rossby number is low, the force balance is largely between the pressure gradient force acting towards the low-pressure area and the Coriolis force acting away from the center of the low pressure.
Cause Oxygen passively diffuses in the lung alveoli according to a pressure gradient.
Since the pressure gradient normal to the flow within a boundary layer is approximately zero for low to moderate hypersonic Mach numbers, the increase of temperature through the boundary layer coincides with a decrease in density.
However, due to the lack of proteins, no substantial pressure gradient can be established to draw fluids from the tissue back into the blood stream.