Surface Tension of Alcohols. Data Selection and Recommended Correlations

Abstract

In previous papers, we have proposed specific correlations to reproduce the surface tension values for several sets of fluids and for wide ranges of temperatures. In this paper, we focus our attention on alcohols and consider the available data for 152 fluids grouped into five families. We use the most recent versions of the DIPPR and DETHERM databases and also Wohlfarth and Wohlfarth’s (1997) book as our main sources of data. In some cases we have also considered new data. All the data have been carefully filtered in order to discard those that are in clear disagreement with most of the available data for the same fluid. In some cases, two or more different data sets versus temperature trends were observed, and where possible we considered only one of these trends. To fit the finally selected data, we used the model currently implemented in National Institute of Standards and Technology’s refprop program, calculating two, four, or six adjustable coefficients for each fluid. As a result, we proposed recommended correlations for 147 alcohols, providing mean average percentage deviations below 1.7% for each fluid, with only two exceptions: 1,2-butanediol (2.77%) and benzyl alcohol (3.20%).