The Thermal Conductivity, Thermal Diffusivity and Isobaric Heat Capacity of Toluene and Argon

Abstract

This paper presents absolute measurements for the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of toluene obtained with a transient hot-wire instrument employing coated wires over the density interval of 735 to 870 kg⋅m⁻³. A new expression for the influence of the wire coating is presented, and an examination of the importance of a nonuniform wire radius is verified with measurements on argon from 296 to 323 K at pressures to 61 MPa. Four isotherms were measured in toluene between 296 and 423 K at pressures to 35 MPa. The measurements have an uncertainty of less than ±0.5% for thermal conductivity and ±2% for thermal diffusivity. Isobaric heat capacity results, derived from the measured values of thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity, using a density determined from an equation of state, have an uncertainty of ±3% after taking into account the uncertainty of the applied equation of state. The measurements demonstrate that isobaric specific heat determinations can be obtained successfully with the transient hot wire technique over a wide range of fluid states provided density values are available.