Viscosity of xenon and ethane in the critical region

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Abstract
The viscosity of xenon has been measured along 10 isochores and the viscosity of ethane along five isochores in the region of the gas‐liquid critical point. The viscometer was a torsionally oscillatingquartz cylinder, which generates a viscous wave when immersed in a fluid; the resonant properties of the quartz in a viscous fluid can be related to the viscosity‐density product of the fluid. The viscosities of both substances exhibit an ``anomalous'' increase which can be fitted to an equation of the form Δη/η id = A ln[(T−Tc/Tc ]+B. This functional form is in agreement with recent theoretical predictions by Sengers, and values of the coefficient A obtained from the data are consistent with theoretical analysis which shows A = −8ν/15π2, where ν is the usual critical state exponent describing the divergence of the long range correlation length. Measuredviscosity excesses amount to 15% for xenon and 16% for ethane. The critical temperatures and densities have been determined to be Tc =16.627±0.005°C, ρ c =1.11±0.01 g/cm3 for xenon; Tc =32.218±0.005°C, ρ c =0.2055±0.002 g/cm3 for ethane.

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