Viscosity and thermal conductivity of some refrigerants at moderate and high densities on the basis of Rainwater–Friend theory and the corresponding states principle

Abstract

The initial density dependence of viscosity and thermal conductivity was formulated on the basis of Rainwater–Friend (RF) theory. In this work, we have first focused on the calculation of viscosity and thermal conductivity of moderately dense argon by using RF theory and an accurate ab initio potential function. This theory which was originally presented for spherical potentials have been adapted for calculation of viscosity and translational contribution of thermal conductivity of some refrigerants by introducing the corresponding states correlations for the second transport virial coefficients. Then the internal states contribution for the thermal conductivity has been determined based on the Mason–Monchick and modified Enskog theories. So, we have calculated the viscosity and thermal conductivity of some refrigerants, R32, R14, R12, R13, R22, R134a, R143a, R125, R123, R142b, at moderate densities up to about 2 mol dm −3. At high densities, beyond the validity range of RF theory, we have applied correlation expressions for the viscosity and thermal conductivity residual functions to calculate the viscosity and thermal conductivity of supercritical refrigerants and then compared with the available experimental data. In conclusion, we have shown that the RF theory in conjunction with the corresponding states residual functions present the reliable model for calculation of viscosity and thermal conductivity of refrigerants over a comparatively wide temperature and pressure range up to 65 MPa within the experimental errors.