PROPERTIES OF DRY AIR AT ONE ATMOSPHERE

UW/MHTL 8406
G-01

by
by F.J. McQuillan, J.R. Culham and M.M. Yovanovich
Microelectronics Heat Transfer Lab
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario

June 1984

Several correlations have been developed to compute the thermodynamic and transport properties of dry air at atmospheric pressure, for the range 200-400 K. A non-linear least squares algorithm is used based on a procedure developed by Marquardt (1963), which combines the Gauss
method (Taylor series) and the method of steepest descent. All correlations deviate by less than
0.15% from tabulated values.
Density can be shown to follow a simple inverse relationship (ideal gas) with a small correction
term:
=

351.99
T

344.84

T2

kg
m3

Sutherlands equation [Reid (1966)] is used to correlate viscosity and thermal conductivity with
temperature:

1.4592 T 3/2

10

109.10 + T

2.3340 103 T 3/2

164.54 + T

(N s)

m2


(m K)

Specific heat follows a quadratic relationship:


4

Cp = 1030.5 0.19975 T + 3.9734 10

J
kg K

Two groups which appear in the Reynolds and Rayleigh numbers have also been examined:


ReL =

RaL =

UL


T L3

where U is the bulk velocity, L is the characteristic length, g is the gravitational acceleration, is
the expansion coefficient, is the thermal diffusivity and T is the temperature difference. Using
the correlations for the individual properties, a general form for these groups was developed, with
higher order terms neglected if they did not contribute to the accuracy of the correlation. The final
expressions are:


2.4090 108
T 3/2

2.6737 1010

T 5/2

s 
m2


1
[6.8568 103 1.5079 104 T + 1.5715 106 T 2 ]2

106
(m3 K)

The relation for thermal diffusivity is:


2

= 4.3274 + 4.1190 10

T + 1.5556 10

10

m2
s

Table 1: Properties of Dry Air at One Atmosphere

Density and specific heat are from Hilsenrath (1955); thermal conductivity and viscosity are from
Touloukian (1970); other values are calculated.
T
[K]
200
210
220
230
240
250
260
270
280
290
300
310
320
330
340
350
360
370
380
390
400

kg
m3

1.7690
1.6842
1.6071
1.5368
1.4728
1.4133
1.3587
1.3082
1.2614
1.2177
1.1769
1.1389
1.1032
1.0697
1.0382
1.0086
0.9805
0.9539
0.9288
0.9050
0.8822

s
106 N
m2

13.36
13.92
14.47
15.01
15.54
16.06
16.57
17.07
17.57
18.05
18.53
19.00
19.46
19.92
20.37
20.81
21.25
21.68
22.11
22.52
22.94

W
103 mK

18.10
18.95
19.80
20.63
21.45
22.26
23.05
23.84
24.61
25.38
26.14
26.87
27.59
28.30
29.00
29.70
30.39
31.07
31.73
32.39
33.05

Cp

J
kgK

1006.4
1006.1
1005.7
1005.6
1005.5
1005.4
1005.5
1005.5
1005.7
1006.0
1006.3
1006.8
1007.3
1007.9
1008.5
1009.2
1010.0
1010.9
1012.0
1013.0
1014.2

/ g/() 
2
103 ms2
106 m31K
106 ms
132.4
121.0
111.1
102.4
94.8
88.0
82.0
76.6
71.8
67.5
63.5
59.9
56.7
53.7
51.0
48.5
46.1
44.0
42.0
40.2
38.5

638.6
505.2
404.2
327.0
267.3
220.4
183.3
153.6
129.6
110.1
94.1
80.9
70.0
60.8
53.1
46.5
41.0
36.2
32.1
28.6
25.5

10.17
11.18
12.25
13.35
14.49
15.67
16.87
18.12
19.40
20.72
22.07
23.43
24.83
26.25
27.70
29.18
30.69
32.22
33.76
35.33
36.94

References
1. Hilsenrath et al., 1955, Tables of Thermal Properties of Gases, NBS Circular 564.
2. Marquardt, D.L., 1963, An Algorithm for Least-Squares Estimation of Non-Linear Parameters, J. Soc. Indust. Appl. Math., 2, pp. 431-441.
3. Reid, Robert C., Sherwood, Thomas K., 1966, The Properties of Gases and Liquids, McGrawHill.
4. Touloukian et al., 1970, Thermophysical Properties of Matter.