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Thermal conductivity of liquid n-alkanes

Journal Article · · Int. J. Thermophys.; (United States)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00513076· OSTI ID:6160863

The thermal conductivity of liquids has been shown in the past to be difficult to predict with a reasonable accuracy, due to the lack of accurate experimental data and reliable prediction schemes. However, data of a high accuracy, and covering wide density ranges, obtained recently in laboratories in Boulder, Lisbon, and London with the transient hot-wire technique, can be used to revise an existing correlation scheme and to develop a new universal predictive technique for the thermal conductivity of liquid normal alkanes. The proposed correlation scheme is constructed on a theoretically based treatment of the van der Waals model of a liquid, which permits the prediction of the density dependence and the thermal conductivity of liquid n-alkanes, methane to tridecane, for temperatures between 110 and 370 K and pressures up to 0.6 MPa, i.e., for 0.3 less than or equal to T/T/sub c/ less than or equal to 0.7 and 2.4 less than or equal to rho/rho/sub c/ less than or equal to 3.7, with an accuracy of +/-1%, given a known value of the thermal conductivity of the fluid at the desired temperature. A generalization of the hard-core volumes obtained, as a function of the number of carbon atoms, showed that it was possible to predict the thermal conductivity of pentane to tetradecane +/- 2%, without the necessity of available experimental measurements.

Research Organization:
Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa (Portugal)
OSTI ID:
6160863
Journal Information:
Int. J. Thermophys.; (United States), Journal Name: Int. J. Thermophys.; (United States) Vol. 9:3; ISSN IJTHD
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English