Utilization of a High-Pressure Vibrating Tube Densimeter for Liquids at Temperatures Down to 100 K

Abstract A high-pressure vibrating tube densimeter, specified by the manufacturer for temperatures from (263 to 473) K at pressures up to 140 MPa, was tested at temperatures down to 100 K and from vacuum to pressures up to 10 MPa. To verify the functionality and overall performance under these conditions, the densimeter was calibrated with measurements under vacuum as well as methane and propane as reference fluids. The calibration range is T = (120 to 200) K at pressures from (2.0 to 10.0) MPa. To evaluate the recorded data, two established calibration models were used to describe the dependence of the densimeter's oscillation period on the investigated reference fluids' temperature, pressure, and density. The experiments showed that the vibrating tube densimeter is operational even at temperatures down to 100 K, but exhibits a shift of its vacuum resonance when subjected to thermal cycling at temperatures below 180 K. Accordingly, the calibration models were modified with respect to how the vacuum resonance is considered. Then, the determined calibration parameters reproduce the densities of the reference fluids within ± 0.10 kg·m−3 for the calibration model that performed better for the present study. Measurements on pure ethane and argon validate the calibration of the densimeter. Here, the densities are within (− 0.47 to 0.16) kg·m−3 of values calculated with the respective reference equation of state. The estimated combined expanded uncertainty (k = 2) in density for the validation measurements ranges from (0.52 to 1.13) kg·m−3 or is less than 0.1 % for liquid densities.