Fluid Properties

Sources of Property Data for Cryogenic Fluids

NIST has two useful resources that provide thermophysical properties (density, heat capacity, enthalpy, entropy, viscosity, thermal conductivity, etc.) for cryogenic fluids. The first is a free online database known as the NIST Chemistry WebBook. It is for pure fluids only, and fluid properties for selected pure fluids can be accessed here: https://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/fluid/. At this link you can generate tables or simple plots of properties in a variety of units. A second option is to purchase (at a modest price) the NIST computer program known as REFPROP, which stands for REFerence PROPerties (https://www.nist.gov/srd/refprop). This program provides thermophysical properties for both pure fluids and mixtures, for a wide variety of economically important fluids. It can be run as a stand-alone program with a graphical user interface on Windows machines. Tables as well as a variety of plots can be generated. You can also link to REFPROP via the REFPROP DLL from a variety of 3rd party software programs including Excel, MATLAB, Labview, etc. The source code is also provided (in FORTRAN) and users may write their own calling programs to REFPROP. Additional answers to common questions about REFPROP can be found at REFPROP DOCS.