Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.56, No.6, 1633-1645, 2017
Prediction of Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Pure Liquids, of Critical Data, and of Vapor Pressure
Physico-thermal properties of pure liquids are important fundamental information for process engineering calculations. Data of these properties are tabulated for many substances. Predictive, yet phenomenological, equations for these data have been proposed in literature. In this paper correlations for molar volume, Hamaker constant, shear viscosity, surface tension, specific heat capacity, and thermal conductivity are proposed that are based on physical reasoning and on the corresponding states principle, CSP. Hence, it is primarily the critical data and the molar mass of the substances that go into the correlations. Some of the correlations require knowledge of the acentric factor and of the boiling and melting temperatures. The given correlations predict the tabulated physico-thermal data well over a wide temperature range. Furthermore, predictive correlations for the critical volume, critical pressure, and the critical compressibility factor are proposed. These correlations are calibrated by parameters that are not generally valid but are valid for groups of substances, for example, the group of alkanes or the group of esters. Also their predictive capability is rather good. Finally, a method is proposed to predict the vapor pressure curve of pure liquids on the basis of the CSP. The proposed correlations give the engineer a rather simple tool for estimating important physico-thermal properties of pure liquids.