Pure and Pseudo-pure Fluid Thermophysical Property Evaluation and the Open-Source Thermophysical Property Library CoolProp

Abstract

Over the last few decades, researchers have developed a number of empirical and theoretical models for the correlation and prediction of the thermophysical properties of pure fluids and mixtures treated as pseudo-pure fluids. In this paper, a survey of all the state-of-the-art formulations of thermophysical properties is presented. The most-accurate thermodynamic properties are obtained from multiparameter Helmholtz-energy-explicit-type formulations. For the transport properties, a wider range of methods has been employed, including the extended corresponding states method. All of the thermophysical property correlations described here have been implemented into CoolProp, an open-source thermophysical property library. This library is written in C++, with wrappers available for the majority of programming languages and platforms of technical interest. As of publication, 110 pure and pseudo-pure fluids are included in the library, as well as properties of 40 incompressible fluids and humid air. The source code for the CoolProp library is included as an electronic annex.