Acoustic determination of the heavy oil thermophysical properties: Thermodynamic consistency revisited

We employed an Initial Value approach, so as to integrate the compressional wave propagation velocity data, to determine the thermo-physical properties of heavy oil samples. We present our results for several thermo-physical characteristics of the heavy oil, including isothermal compressibility, thermal expansivity, isobaric heat capacity, and the Joule-Thomson coefficient, for the temperatures between 283.15 K and 373.15 K and pressures up to 20 MPa. The acoustically-determined heavy oil densities exhibited outstanding accuracy within 0.4% of the experimental counterparts. Owing to the nature of the integration methodology applied, derived from the fundamental thermodynamic relations, reasonably accurate results should be expected as for the average thermo-physical properties established for the heavy oil mixtures.