The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	Estimation of thermodynamic properties of petroleum fractions to supplement the ASPEN simulator
Author:	Sund, Steven E.
View Online:	njit-etd1989-028 (x, 389 pages ~ 9.3 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Environmental Science
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Chemical Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Roche, Edward Charles, Jr. (Committee chair) Bart, Ernest N. (Committee member) Knox, Dana E. (Committee member)
Date:	1989
Keywords:	Hydrocarbons. Thermodynamics. ASPEN (Computer program language)
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	The objective of this study was to develop a method of estimating hydrocarbon pseudocomponent data in a format that is consistent with the ASPEN simulator. Although algorithms exist to estimate the pseudocomponent properties, no comprehensive program exists for the public version of ASPEN. A computer program was developed which will take a minimum of input data and can generate the necessary pure component properties for an ASPEN simulation. The program is meant to complement the ASPEN simulator, so the input is similar to ASPEN's input. The output can be incorporated directly into an ASPEN input or can be of the form used by ASPEN's data file management system (DENS) translator for creation of a user data bank. The program has the capability to enter all the necessary input needed to generate the pseudocomponent data or will fill in missing values with 'good' estimates. The program is intelligent enough to calculate only the necessary pure component properties which are needed for a particular ASPEN property route. Preferred existing correlations were used whenever available. If no property correlation was found in the literature, the property constants were estimated using recommended estimation procedures. Parameters for the remaining properties for which no estimation technique could be found were fit using the ASPEN data bank. An extensive estimation debug and report facility were included to trace the estimation procedure and/or summarize the properties estimated. Error/warning messages were incorporated wherever feasible, as were statistics on the fit of temperature dependent property constants. All parameter fit were performed using Marquardt's method.