A new cubic simplified perturbed hard-body equation of state

A new cubic equation of state (EOS) was developed in this study for vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) calculations of nonpolar fluids. The repulsive term of this EOS reexpressed the results of Walsh and Gubbins (1990) from their modified thermodynamic perturbation theory of polymerization into a simple form in which a non-spherical parameter was employed to account for the different shapes of molecules. The repulsive compressibility factors calculated from this EOS agree well with the molecular simulation data for various kinds of hard bodies ranging from a single hard sphere to tangent or fused long chain molecules. A simple attractive term was then coupled with the repulsive to complete the EOS in a cubic form. Equation parameters were determined for a diversity of nonpolar real fluids. These parameters were expressed in generalized forms for engineering computations. Satisfactory results from this EOS on the saturated properties of pure nonpolar fluids were obtained. This EOS was also extended to calculate the VLE of nonpolar fluid mixtures. The results are again satisfactory over wide ranges of temperature and pressure.