Equation of State Models

AFT xStream uses the Ideal Gas model with a corrected compressibility factor, Z, to model AFT Standard fluids. The Z-factor can be calculated by numerous correlations. xStream offers 6 options: Constant Z, Ideal Gas, Peng-Robinson, Redlich-Kwong, Soave Redlich-Kwong, and Three-Parameter.

The Ideal Gas option leaves the Z-factor defined at 1, meaning the fluid is modeled as an Ideal Gas. The Constant Z option allows the user to specify a value for Z which xStream then uses for all property calculations. The other Equation of State options are discussed in turn below.

Equations of State Nomenclature

There are a few characterizing fluid properties that are common to all of the Equations of state below.

The reduced temperature (Tr) and reduced pressure (Pr) are the ratios of the thermodynamic properties to the critical properties. For example,

is the definition of the reduced pressure. The reduced temperature could be written similarly.

ω is the acentric factor, for which values can be found in chemical engineering data books. It is a correction factor that can be set to zero if you cannot find data for the fluid. However, accuracy will be reduced.

Redlich-Kwong

The Redlich-Kwong Equation of State is given by the following cubic equation.

where

And Pc and Tc are the critical pressure and temperature, respectively. V is the molar volume.

An alternative form of the Redlich-Kwong equation can be obtained by multiplying the Redlich-Kwong equation by V/RT.

where

Elimination of the "a" and "b" terms gives

 

where Tr and Pr are the reduced temperature and reduced pressure.

Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK)

Soave proposed a modified version of the Redlich-Kwong method as follows

where

where Tr is the reduced temperature, and ω is the acentric factor.

The SRK equation can also be written as in terms of Z as

where

The largest root of Z for the cubic equation is the compressibility factor for the vapor form of the fluid.

Peng-Robinson

The Peng-Robinson Equation of State uses a similar form to the Redlich-Kwong equation of state cubic equation. The Peng-Robinson cubic equation is given as follows

where

And Pc and Tc are the critical pressure and temperature, respectively, V is the molar volume, Tr is the reduced temperature and ω is the acentric factor.

The above equation for pressure can be rewritten as

where

 

The largest root of Z for the above equation is the compressibility factor of the vapor form of the fluid.

Three-parameter

xStream implements a Three-Parameter Equation of State derived by Pitzer for the second coefficient in the Virial Equation of State. The Three-Parameter model as used by xStream is taken from page 102 of  Smith, van Ness, and AbbottSmith, J.M., van Ness, H.C., and Abbott, M.M., Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, 6th edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 2001. and shown below.

where Z is the compressibility factor, and Pr and Tr are the reduced pressure and temperature, respectively.

The constants B0 and B1 are given by the following

where ω is the acentric factor.