NIST Standard Reference Database 23
NIST Reference Fluid Thermodynamic and Transport Properties—
REFPROP
Version 9.0
User's Guide
Eric W. Lemmon
Marcia L. Huber
Mark O. McLinden
Thermophysical Properties Division
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Boulder, Colorado 80305
November, 2010
U.S. Department of Commerce
Technology Administration
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Standard Reference Data Program
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899
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copy of the Database and to verify that the data contained therein have been selected on the basis of
sound scientific judgment. However, NIST makes no warranties to that effect, and NIST shall not be liable
for any damage that may result from errors or omissions in the Database.
©2010 copyright by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce on behalf of the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of our colleagues and associates. Gary Hardin (of
NIST) provided support with the help file and the installation package. Allan Harvey (of NIST) and Frank
Doyle provided very thorough and greatly appreciated debugging of REFPROP. Diego Ortiz (of Texas
A&M University) helped with the new VLE routine added in version 9.0. Arno Laesecke (of NIST)
provided an extensive collection of viscosity data. Lennart Vamling (of the Chalmers University of
Technology in Sweden), Johannes Lux (of the German Aerospace Center), and Paul Brown (of Ramgen
Power Systems) aided in the MATLAB link. Chris Muzny (of NIST) aided with the link to C++, and with
the MatLab link.
Previous versions of the REFPROP database were developed by Graham Morrison and John Gallagher.
Jim Ely, Dan Friend, and Marcia Huber wrote the early versions of the related databases NIST12 and
NIST14 from which we have extracted algorithms. We thank Sanford Klein and Adele Peskin, the
programmers of the original graphical interface implemented in version 6. We had many helpful
discussions with Dan Friend, Allan Harvey, Roland Span, Arno Laesecke, Richard Perkins, and Reiner
Tillner-Roth.
We also made extensive use of the CATS Database for Pure Fluids and Mixtures of the Center for
Applied Thermodynamic Studies of the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, the NIST/TRC SOURCE and
TDE Databases, the AIChE DIPPR database, and the Dortmund Data Bank for Pure Component
Properties (DDB-Pure), Oldenburg, Germany in fitting the models implemented in REFPROP. Finally, we
acknowledge our many colleagues whose property measurements and models we have taken from the
literature, and without which this database would be much reduced in scope.
Development of this software package was supported by the NIST Thermophysical Properties Division
and the NIST Standard Reference Data Program. The development of previous versions was supported
by the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Technology Institute and the U.S. Department of Energy. Model
development and measurements at NIST have been supported over a period of many years by numerous
sponsors including the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Technology Institute, the U.S. Department of
Energy, the Electric Power Research Institute, the Environmental Protection Agency, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, and the
Building Environment and Thermophysical Properties Divisions of NIST.
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
1.1 Objectives and Scope of the Database ...............................................................................1
1.2 Uncertainties in Calculated Properties.................................................................................1
1.3 Organization of the User's Guide.........................................................................................1
2. INSTALLATION ............................................................................................................................2
2.1 System Requirements..........................................................................................................2
2.2 Installation ............................................................................................................................3
3. OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................................3
3.1 Database Structure ..............................................................................................................3
3.2 Use of the Database ............................................................................................................3
3.3 Overview of the Menus ........................................................................................................3
3.4 Cautions ...............................................................................................................................4
4. DEFINING THE FLUID OF INTEREST........................................................................................6
4.1 Selecting a Pure Fluid..........................................................................................................6
4.2 Selecting a Pseudo Pure Fluid ............................................................................................6
4.3 Selecting a Predefined Mixture............................................................................................7
4.4 Defining a New Mixture........................................................................................................7
4.4.1 Defining the mixture name and composition ..............................................................8
4.4.2 Storing a mixture for future use ..................................................................................9
4.4.3 Specifying a fluid set ..................................................................................................9
4.5 The Status Bar ...................................................................................................................10
4.5.1 Pure-fluid information screen ...................................................................................10
4.5.2 Changing property models .......................................................................................11
4.5.3 Mixture information screen .......................................................................................12
4.6 Viewing Mixture Parameters ..............................................................................................12
4.7 Changing Mixture Parameters ...........................................................................................13
5. GENERATING PROPERTY TABLES ........................................................................................14
5.1 Calculating Saturation Tables............................................................................................14
5.2 Calculating Iso-Property tables..........................................................................................16
5.3 Calculating Tables at Specified State Points .....................................................................17
5.4 Calculating Saturation Properties at Specified Points .......................................................20
5.5 Reformatting Existing Data Tables ....................................................................................21
5.6 Warnings and Errors ..........................................................................................................21
6. CREATING AND MODIFYING PLOTS ......................................................................................23
6.1 Plotting Data from Tables ..................................................................................................23
6.2 Overlaying Data onto Existing Plots ..................................................................................24
6.3 Predefined Diagrams .........................................................................................................24
6.3.1 Diagrams of thermodynamic surfaces......................................................................24
6.3.2 Phase diagrams .......................................................................................................26
6.4 Modifying Plots...................................................................................................................26
6.4.1 The Modify Plot command........................................................................................26
6.4.2 Adding and deleting labels .......................................................................................27
6.4.3 Resizing and moving plots .......................................................................................28
6.4.4 Reading coordinates off a plot..................................................................................28
6.4.5 Zooming....................................................................................................................28
6.4.6 Add a point to a table ...............................................................................................28
7. CHANGING OPTIONS AND PREFERENCES ..........................................................................29
7.1 Units ...................................................................................................................................29
7.2 Enthalpy and Entropy Reference States and Exergy ........................................................30
7.3 Properties Calculated.........................................................................................................31
7.4 Property Order .............................................................................................................
......34
7.5 Preferences........................................................................................................................35
