NIST Reference Fluid Thermodynamic and Transport Properties Database: Version 10. REFPROP is an acronym for REFerence fluid PROPerties. This program calculates the thermodynamic and transport properties of industrially important fluids and their mixtures. REFPROP is designed to run on any personal computer running the Microsoft® Windows® 98, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, or similar operating system, both 32 bit and 64 bit. The program requires 20 MB of hard disk. REFPROP is an acronym for REFerence fluid PROPerties. This program, developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), provides tables and plots of the thermodynamic and transport properties of industrially important fluids and their mixtures with an emphasis on refrigerants and hydrocarbons, especially natural gas systems.
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REFPROP is an acronym for REFerence fluid PROPerties. This program, developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), calculates the thermodynamic and transport properties of industrially important fluids and their mixtures. These properties can be displayed in Tables and Plots through the graphical user interface; they are also accessible through spreadsheets or user-written applications accessing the REFPROP dll.
Nist Refprop Software
REFPROP is based on the most accurate pure fluid and mixture models currently available. It implements three models for the thermodynamic properties of pure fluids: equations of state explicit in Helmholtz energy, the modified Benedict-Webb-Rubin equation of state, and an extended corresponding states (ECS) model. Mixture calculations employ a model that applies mixing rules to the Helmholtz energy of the mixture components; it uses a departure function to account for the departure from ideal mixing. Viscosity and thermal conductivity are modeled with either fluid-specific correlations, an ECS method, or in some cases the friction theory method.
The property formulations and fluid data files were programmed by:
REFPROP 10.0 is the culmination of several years of revisions and updates. Work never stops on the development of thermophysical properties and equations, but the last two years have been especially intense and fully dedicated to this release. Although there are only four authors of this work, we are very grateful to the many contributions of our NIST colleagues, including Gary Hardin, Allan Harvey, Chris Muzny, Vladimir Diky, Ala Bazyleva, and Janiel Reed who have provided support over the last several versions of REFPROP. Also of NIST are Adam Morey, Cindy McKneely, and Sherena Johnson who distribute the product for us to industry. A number of individuals from industry have contributed continuously over the last several years; we are indebted to them for their help, and we thank Tobias Loew, Nik Felbab, Nicolas James, Dan Williams, Jim Pollard, and Stuart Lawson.
We acknowledge our many colleagues whose property models we have taken from the literature, and without which this database would be much reduced in scope. In particular, the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, has for many decades worked alongside us in the development of equations of state. The contributions of Wolfgang Wagner, Roland Span, and Monika Thol can easily be seen by browsing through the fluid information. We thank Marc Assael of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) for his many contributions to the development of transport property formulations, and Ryo Akasaka of Kyushu Sangyo University for his contributions to the refrigerant equations of state. We also thank our colleagues within our division whose efforts have made possible the NIST/TRC SOURCE and TDE Databases, of which we have made extensive use for our data needs required to develop thermophysical property equations.
Although REFPROP is a program built on equations of state, its entire existence is built on a foundation of experimental data, some of which dates back to the late 1800s. Through experimental measurements, especially the highly accurate values of Wolfgang Wagner, Reiner Kleinrahm, Martin Trusler, Mark McLinden, Markus Richter, their students and colleagues, and many others, equations are built that are then used throughout industry world-wide. Many things that touch our lives have been influenced in one way or another by these measurements. Power generation alone affects all, and the properties from these equations influence the efficiency and design of that infrastructure. Likewise, heating, cooling, and transportation have all been influenced by the measurements and subsequent property equations. We are greatly indebted to the enormous work of so many scientists and engineers that continues unseen by most.
The development of this software package was supported by the NIST Applied Chemicals and Materials Division and the NIST Standard Reference Data Program. The development of the models and the measurement of the data on which REFPROP is based have been supported over a period of many years by numerous sponsors.
IMPORTANT: Please visit the REFPROP FAQ web site as your first resource when you encounter difficulties or have questions. Most email enquiries are answered by pointing to the FAQ. Using the FAQ will save valuable NIST resources that can be used to further develop REFPROP.
*Certain trade names and other commercial designations are used in this work for the purpose of clarity. In no case does such identification imply endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor does it imply that the products or services so identified are necessarily the best available for the purpose.
Linking REFPROP with Other Applications
Please note:The information below was developed for Refprop 9.1 (except the VB6 and .NET applications), but in many applications they will still work with Refprop 10.However, in most cases the new material on Github should be used instead of the applications here when linking with Version 10.
1.Github website
2.C Applications
3.VB6 and .NET Applications
4.Mac/Unix/Linux Applications
5.CAPE-OPEN Applications
6.Perl Applications
7.MATLAB Applications
8.Excel Applications
Github website. The following link will transfer you to the website that documents all new linking applications for Refprop 10:
https://github.com/usnistgov/REFPROP-wrappers
C Applications. A sample C++ file comes with the Refprop program and is installed in the Examples directory and explained in the help file. An example for the C programming language has been written by Ian Bell. The zip file is included below:
C.ZIP
VB6 and .NET Applications. The following simple application can be used to link Refprop 10 with VB6 (these will not work with Refprop 9.1):
SAMPLE.BAS
Ian Spanswick provided the following example for linking with VB.NET.It is based on the VBA code in the Refprop.xls Excel file distributed with Version 10.
Refprop_.NET_example.vb
Mac/Unix/Linux Applications. Links to Refprop on Mac, Unix, or Linux operating systems is being developed by Jorrit Wronski, Jean-Baptiste Carre, and Nathan Kamphuis. The application is described at:
https://github.com/jowr/librefprop.so
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CAPE-OPEN Applications. The following weblink gives the details of a third-party application for linking Refprop to CAPE-OPEN applications.
http://www.amsterchem.com/refpropco.html
Perl Applications. The following example file for the Perl programming language has been written by Chermac Rolle, and he has given us permission to distribute his code to others.
PERL.ZIP
Mini Refprop Nist
MATLAB Applications. Keith Wait from GE Home Business Solutions has made the following MATLAB application available. This application calls the Refprop DLL directly rather than through the mex file provided in previous versions of Refprop. This release now includes the molar mass, compressibility factor, gross and net heating values, critical point properties, volumetric expansivity, and a number of other properties. The routines can now read mixture files (*.mix). When using these new files, be sure to delete the old refpropm.mexw32 or refpropm.mexw64 files if you downloaded them previously.
refpropm.m (uploaded Oct. 17, 2013)
rp_proto.m
rp_proto64.m
Note: These file names are now lowercase, if you downloaded uppercase versions, delete them before downloading otherwise the case will be changed and the files will not work.
If an error message such as '...is not a valid Win32 application' occurs, try downloading the file again, most likely the file was corrupted during the first attempt
For 64-bit MATLAB, the following files should be placed in your Refprop directory:
REFPRP64_thunk_pcwin64.dll
REFPRP64.DLL
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Excel Applications. The Refprop.xls file that comes with the program has Visual Basic (VB) code embedded within it to make the connection between the workbook and the Refprop DLL. However, when working with anything other than temporary calculations, it is best to start with a blank workbook that does not have the VB code. In this manner, future updates to the Refprop program can be made available to all of your old workbooks through the instructions below.
If calculations do not appear to work and you are located outside of the U.S., try switching the period and comma, or the comma and semicolon, to enter the numbers in the format required by your version of Microsoft products.For example, try both of these to see which format is required:
=Density('argon','TP','SI',325.5,8.4)
=Density('argon';'TP';'SI';325,5;8,4)
To make the Excel routines in Refprop available to any worksheet in 9.0 (in version 9.1, this is done automatically for you during the installation), two environment variables called RPprefix and Path should be added (you will need administrative rights in order to do this) in a similar manner as shown below in the User variables section:
Do not add these to your System variables section (and more importantly, do NOT damage your path statement in the System variables section!). In XP, the environment variables can be set under Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/Advanced/Environment Variables, under the 'User variables' option. In Windows 7, this can be found in Start/Control Panel/System And Security/System/Change settings/Advanced/Environment variables.
In 64-bit versions of Windows, Microsoft added another Program Files directory called 'Program Files (x86)', which is the default directory where Refprop gets installed. For the connections to work, you need to either point to this directory in your path statement or copy all the Refprop files to the old 'Program Files' directory.
The following outlines the procedure for using REFPROP within any spreadsheet in Office 2007 or 2010:
1. Open REFPROP.xls and save it as an add-in, REFPROP.xla or REFPROP.xlam, in the main REFPROP folder, C:Program FilesREFPROP.
2. Go to File/Options/Trust Center/Trust Center Settings (button at bottom right).
3. Select 'Trusted Locations' on the left. Click 'Add new location'. Browse to C:Program FilesREFPROP, select 'Subfolders of this location are also trusted', and click 'OK'.
4. Go to File/Options/Add-Ins and select 'Excel Add-ins' in the Manage drop-down box at the bottom, and click Go.
5. Click 'Browse', and navigate to C:Program FilesREFPROP, select REFPROP.xlam and click OK. IMPORTANT: Do not simply select REFPROP.xlam when it first comes up, as this will be in the wrong folder (C:Documents and SettingsUsernameApplication DataMicrosoftAddIns), which is not trusted and will not work.
6. Select the Data tab, and click on Edit Links. Select REFPROP.xlam. Click on Change Source and navigate to C:Program FilesREFPROP. Select REFPROP.xlam there and click OK. (This is just to make sure you are connected to the correct Add-in.) If the Data tab is greyed out, start typing in a Refprop command [such as “=Density('water','TP','SI',300,1) ] and the button should become active.
7. Once you have the xla or xlam file set up, you can open a brand new work book and the functions should be available to you. Do not continue working with the Refprop.xls file since it still contains the VB code that is also in the xlam file. In this manner, future updates from NIST of the Refprop.xls file can be resaved as the xlam file, and all of your work books will have access to the most recent code.
Other tips:
1. In some cases the macros may not work. Try saving the file as a macro-enabled workbook (under Save As…).
2. The xls file distributed with version 9.0 sometimes will give false answers depending on the sequence of calculations if multiple xls files are open. Switching between the open files may cause the initial setup to be lost. The updated xls file given above fixes this.
3. For inputs that do not required a 5th parameter, Excel may require the comma at the end, for example: =Pressure('water', 'TVAP', 'SI', 298,)
4. If Excel cannot find the Refprop fluid files, you can copy the *.FLD and HMX.BNC files into a default directory: C:REFPROPFLUIDS. When the program fails to find the fluid files, it will look to see if a C:REFPROPFLUIDS (or D:) is available, and if so it will use the files from that source.
5. If you see dual entries for each function in your workbook, then you have either saved two xla files, or you are working with a file that still contains the VB code. Start with a blank workbook to eliminate the dual entries for the latter case.
There have been a number of users who have had problems with the Excel link to Refprop. In some of these cases and in other situations we have found that the refprop.dll file had also been installed in either the c:windows directory or the c:windowssystem32 directory. If you experience problems, please do a full hard drive search for refprop.dll and delete all occurrences except the one in your c:program filesrefprop directory.
Nist Refprop Program 2019
Last modified: February 4, 2019