Three-parameter correlation for the temperature dependent thermal conductivity of saturated liquids

Abstract

We here report a three-parameter correlation for the temperature T dependent thermal conductivity λ of different kinds of saturated liquids including n-alkanes, refrigerants and others such as argon and nitrogen. The correlation is proven to be more accurate than other known correlations. Compared with the REFPROP data in NIST, the proposed correlation reproduces the corresponding data with the average absolute deviation (AAD) less than 1.20% for all the liquids considered. At the same time, it well holds in a wider temperature range which begins from the triple point temperature and ends at about 0.98 times the critical temperature, at which the thermal conductivity experimentally takes a minimal value for the liquids we study. Engineers and researchers can use the proposed correlation to directly estimate/calculate the thermal conductivity of the liquids considered here with high accuracy. Thermal conductivity related industrial and engineering equipment designs and chemical process designs will benefit from it greatly.