TY - JOUR
T1 - Accurate viscosity predictions of linear polymers from n-alkanes data
AU - Cané, Eduard
AU - Llovell, Fèlix
AU - Vega, Lourdes F.
N1 - Funding Information:
F. Llovell acknowledges funding support from the Catalan Government (project 2014SGR-1582). E. Cané acknowledges additional financial support from the Gas Research Center, the Petroleum Institute.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2017/10
Y1 - 2017/10
N2 - The design of processes involving heavy alkanes and polymers relies on the accurate knowledge of their viscosity, as it strongly affects the flowing behavior, and hence, the final performance. Most classical viscosity modeling methods are unable to predict the behavior at high-pressure, high-temperature conditions, neither to capture the change in the slope of the zero-shear viscosity with the molecular weight. We present here results of coupling two molecular theories, the soft-SAFT Equation of State and the Free-Volume Theory (FVT), for viscosity calculations of n-alkanes and linear polyethylene up to 32,100 g/mol, in a transferable manner. A new procedure, named Spider-Web, is implemented to obtain reliable parameters for the FVT. The procedure provides accurate predictions for the viscosity of n-alkane mixtures in agreement with experimental data, including high pressure and high temperature conditions. The molecular model is also able to predict the dependency of the entanglement molecular weight with temperature and pressure.
AB - The design of processes involving heavy alkanes and polymers relies on the accurate knowledge of their viscosity, as it strongly affects the flowing behavior, and hence, the final performance. Most classical viscosity modeling methods are unable to predict the behavior at high-pressure, high-temperature conditions, neither to capture the change in the slope of the zero-shear viscosity with the molecular weight. We present here results of coupling two molecular theories, the soft-SAFT Equation of State and the Free-Volume Theory (FVT), for viscosity calculations of n-alkanes and linear polyethylene up to 32,100 g/mol, in a transferable manner. A new procedure, named Spider-Web, is implemented to obtain reliable parameters for the FVT. The procedure provides accurate predictions for the viscosity of n-alkane mixtures in agreement with experimental data, including high pressure and high temperature conditions. The molecular model is also able to predict the dependency of the entanglement molecular weight with temperature and pressure.
KW - Alkanes
KW - Free-Volume Theory
KW - Polymers
KW - Soft-SAFT equation of state
KW - Spider-Web procedure
KW - Viscosity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028013400&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.molliq.2017.08.033
DO - 10.1016/j.molliq.2017.08.033
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85028013400
SN - 0167-7322
VL - 243
SP - 115
EP - 123
JO - Journal of Molecular Liquids
JF - Journal of Molecular Liquids
ER -