Refrigerants of The Methane Etane and Propane Series - Thermal Co
Refrigerants of The Methane Etane and Propane Series - Thermal Co
Refrigerants of The Methane Etane and Propane Series - Thermal Co
Purdue e-Pubs
International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
School of Mechanical Engineering
Conference
2010
Marco Sotte
Università Politecnica delle Marche
Latini, Giovanni and Sotte, Marco, "Refrigerants of the Methane, Etane and Propane Series: Thermal Conductivity Calculation Along
the Saturation Line" (2010). International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference. Paper 1128.
http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/iracc/1128
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2444, Page 1
* Corresponding Author
ABSTRACT
In this paper a formula is presented for the calculation of thermal conductivity of liquids along the saturation line.
The formula is valid for organic compounds in a wide reduced temperature range (0.30 to 0.95), but is proven to be
particularly reliable for refrigerants by testing it on a database of more than 40 refrigerants of the methane, ethane
and propane series that includes almost all those reported by ASHRAE in its 2007 revision of standard 34.
The test on the indicated refrigerants shows a very satisfying performance: mean and maximum absolute deviations
between calculated values and experimental data are generally less than 3% and 8% respectively.
The proposed formula is very simple: three characteristic parameters appear in the equation to express the thermal
conductivity dependence on the reduced temperature: the constant “Φ ”, a multiplying factor “A”, and an exponent
“a”.
1. INTRODUCTION
Thermal conductivity is a property required in all heat transfer problems. It appears as the parameter λ (W m-1 K-1)
in the well known "Fourier's law" (Fourier, 1822) describing thermal conduction in a mono-dimensional flow
through a section of infinitesimal area dA, normal to the direction x of the flow.
dT
dq = - λ ⋅ dA (1)
dx
Thermal conductivity is a characteristic of each compound, depending on the molecular structure. Most organic
liquids (therefore almost all refrigerants) show thermal conductivity values in the range 0.100÷0.200 W m-1 K-1;
simple liquids thermal conductivity is usually 10 to 100 times those of the same substances in the gaseous state and
0.1÷0.2 times those of the corresponding solid near the normal melting point.
From a theoretical point of view, thermal conductivity is a function of temperature and density; in expressions used
for engineering purposes, density is usually replaced by pressure. Moreover pressure dependence is often neglected,
because of its small influence at pressures under 5÷6 MPa (McLaughlin, 1964).
The knowledge of the value of thermal conductivity of a particular refrigerant is always necessary for industrial
design of a refrigeration cycle and especially of some equipment in it, such as heat exchangers, pipes and vessels.
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At present, from the industrial point of view, the investigation of thermal conductivity and other transport properties
has grown interest; if in the past, most intense research involved the equilibrium properties, to determine the
feasibility of a particolar process, today’s attention on process integration and energy minimization has led to a
growing interest on the non-equilibrium properties since they govern the geometrical dimensions of a machine
and/or the timescale of a process (Wakeham, 1996).
In this work a formula is presented and tested on a set of more than 40 refrigerants of the methane, ethane and
propane series. The most used refrigerants, especially almost all those reported by ASHRAE in its 2007 revision of
standard 34 are included in the test and many recent data are used.
A wide reduced temperature range is investigated, from 0.30 to 0.95; for higher temperature values the critical
enhancement appears and “liquid-state” formulas are not applicable.
A wide database of measured values of thermal conductivity exists in literature, especially in the field of
refrigerants, since many organic compounds have been widely used for many years. Also, a great amount of
experimental data on new refrigerants has been produced after the adoption of the Montreal Protocol on Substances
that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
Nevertheless, the efforts for producing experimental data doesn’t reduce the necessity of formulas and models to
generate values where there are no experimental ones: Nieto de Castro and Wakeham (1996) highlighted the
importance of correlation, estimation and prediction with considerations on the large time that would be necessary to
measure all the values of only the most important properties generally involved in process design for the most
frequently used chemicals.
For this reason prediction, estimation and correlation methods have been widely used for the generation of values of
transport properties; correlation methods can be used only when a sufficient amount of data is available, and, in
most cases, this is not the situation for refrigerants. The other two methods have both been used in the case of
thermal conductivity, but prediction hasn’t yet come to reliable results in the case of liquids due to the lack of a
well-defined theory of the liquid state; so prediction methods usually need the employment of many experimental-
derived parameters, becoming then estimation methods in order to produce acceptable results.
In the end reliable methods are to be found in the field of estimation, as was stated in previous works by Latini and
his research team after a detailed work carried out in the early 70’s (Baroncini et al., 1979). Even if several years
have passed, the conclusion is still true.
Some empirical methods used at present for liquids are the one by Sastri the one by Chung et al. and the so-called
TRAPP method (Poling et al., 2001). The method by Sastri is originally developed for liquids, while the other two
were specifically devised to treat liquid systems at high reduced pressures and high-pressure gases.
A wide collection and description of other methods and a test of their performances can be found in Baroncini et al.,
(1979).
The main problems for most formulas are the small set of substances for which each expression is reliable and the
requirement of too many parameters for the formula in order to use it. Also the temperature range in which the
formula is applicable, is particularly important in the filed of refrigerants, that are used under a wide temperature
range inside the same equipment.
λ = λ0 − BT (2)
Linearity ceases moving away from the normal boiling point. Regarding the dependence on density, thermal
conductivity generally increases with the increase of density; for engineering purposes, and also for measuring
difficulties, density is usually substituted by pressure; variations of thermal conductivity with pressure are irrelevant
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up to pressures of 5 ÷ 6 MPa (Poling at al., 2001). The critical point represents a singularity and there is a very
particular behavior next to it. For pressure values higher than 50 MPa there is an inversion of the effect of pressure.
(3)
A is the value of the thermal conductivity at the reduced temperature Tr ≈ 0.55. Equation 3 has become a reference,
reported by Poling et al. (2001). Errors of this formula are usually less than 10% in the range Tr = 0.3÷0.8. Later the
formula has been revised and the following expression has been presented (Latini and Polonara, 2007):
⎡ 1 − T 2 ⎤a
λ = A⎢
( r) ⎥
(4)
⎢⎣ Tr ⎥⎦
Parameter a assumes rational values less than 1, and each value is typical of one family of compounds (alkanes,
alkenes, refrigerants of the methane serie, refrigerants of the ethane serie, etc.), while A is calculated with
experimental data for each liquid. The new expression has a particular peculiarity: when the expression in brackets
equals 1, A=λ(Tr≈0.3820). Parameter A is therefore the value of thermal conductivity of the liquid at a precise
temperature, that is when:
(5)
In this way the golden ratio (Φ), i.e. the well known number linked to the Fibonacci’s sequence (F=1 ,1 ,2 ,3 ,5 ,8
,13 ,21 ,34 ,55 ,89 ,144 , …) is shown to be in a special relation with the liquid state.
F(n +1) 5 +1
lim = = 1.6180339887... = Φ (6)
n→∞ F 2
(n )
Tests have been performed on the formula, showing a good behavior: thermal conductivity values along the
saturation line in the range Tr = 0.3÷0.8 show mean absolute errors less than 2%. Also the simplicity of the formula
and the wide temperature range of application are worth being pointed out.
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(6)
A has a precise physical meaning: it is the value of the liquid’s thermal conductivity at a reduced temperature value
of 0.6180339887 …, the mantissa of the golden ratio. As in the previous cases, “a” assumes one value for each serie
of organic liquids, chosen experimentally in the set of rational numbers less than 1.
The steps of the formula’s test are described in the following subsections; at the end, the results of the test are
shown.
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Tc values used for the calculation of the reduced temperature, come from two different sources: the handbook by
Poling et Al. (2001) and the “NIST Webbook” online database.
The “a” exponent is chosen once for every family as the value that generates the best overall fit of the formula on
the considered serie of refrigerants; it is always a rational value less than one. Adopted values are reported in table 4.
The value of A in the present study has been determined by linear regression on the two measures containing the just
specified Tr value, when available, or by the least squares method on all the available data, when there where no
points higher and lower than the specified Tr.
ASHRAE # of
Trmin Trmax A Δm (%) Δmax (%) Tc (K) references
Name points
R10 0,45 0,84 0,093 1,15 2,85 556,30 23 Vargaftik et al., 1994;
Vargaftik et al., 1994;
Assael et al., 1992;,
R11 0,37 0,93 0,091 2,95 8,65 471,10 40
Shankland, 1990;
Yata et al., 1984
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ASHRAE # of
Trmin Trmax A Δm (%) Δmax (%) Tc (K) references
Name points
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ASHRAE # of
Trmin Trmax A Δm (%) Δmax (%) Tc (K) References
Name points
R218 0,38 0,93 0,07 2,73 5,27 345,10 20 Vargaftik et al., 1994
R236fa 0,60 0,95 0,10 1,12 2,59 398,10 13 Gross and Song, 1996
R280 0,56 0,62 0,11 1,09 1,76 503,10 4 Vargaftik et al., 1994
R280B1fb 0,43 0,61 0,09 3,22 5,95 540,45 11 Vargaftik et al., 1994
R290 0,32 0,81 0,14 2,37 7,52 369,83 15 Vargaftik et al., 1994
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# of
Serie a Δm (%) Δmax (%)
compounds
6. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper a formula for the calculation of thermal conductivity of organic liquids along the saturation line is
presented and tested on a database of more than 40 refrigerants belonging to the series of methane, ethane and
propane. Almost all the refrigerants present in ASHRAE Standard 34 have been considered, thus covering most of
the substances in use in the refrigeration industry at the moment.
The formula is a simple expression and only one experimental points and the value of the critical temperature of the
compound are needed to generate thermal conductivity values along the saturation line in the range Tr=0.300.95.
The test shows average errors less than 2.5 % in the case of refrigerants of methane and propane series and equal to
2.8 % in the case of the propane serie. Mean maximum errors for each serie are 6.68 % in the case of the methane
serie, 7.09 % in the case of ethane serie and 4.62 % in the case of the propane serie.
Only in the case of 6 compound the absolute maximum errors exceed 10%, and this generally happens when Tr
values are close to 0.95, and critical enhancement appears.
The results suggest that this formula can find wide technological use, due to its accuracy and simplicity.
The results showed above are extremely good especially if it is considered that errors in experimental values are
rarely lower than 5%.
NOMENCLATURE
a exponent in Latini’s formula Subscripts
A multiplying factor in Latini’s (W m-1 K-1) cal calculated
formula exp experimental
M molecular weight (kg kmole-1) m average
T absolute temperature (K) max maximum
Tc critical temperature (K)
Tr reduced temperature, T·Tc-1
Δ percent error (%)
Φ golden ratio
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