Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Dioxide–Methane Mixtures at Temperatures Between 300 and 425 K and at Pressures up to 12 MPa

Abstract

The thermal conductivities of carbon dioxide and three mixtures of carbon dioxide and methane at six nominal temperatures between 300 and 425 K have been measured as a function of pressure up to 12 MPa. The measurements were made with a transient hot-wire apparatus. The relative uncertainty of the reported thermal conductivities at a 95% confidence level is estimated to be ±1.2%. Results of the low-density analysis of the obtained data were used to test expressions for predicting the thermal conductivity of nonpolar mixtures in a dilute-gas limit developed by Schreiber, Vesovic, and Wakeham. The scheme was found to underestimate the experimental thermal conductivity with deviations not exceeding 5%. The dependence of the thermal conductivity on density was used to test the predictive scheme for the thermal conductivity of gas mixtures under pressure suggested by Mason et al. and improved by Vesovic and Wakeham. Comparisons reveal a pronounced critical enhancement on isotherms at 300 and 325 K for mixtures with methane mole fractions of 0.25 and 0.50. For other states, comparisons of the experimental and predicted excess thermal conductivity contributions showed a smaller increase of the experimental data with deviations approaching 3% within the examined range of densities.