Gas Viscosity Calculator

Enter temperature to compute gas

dynamic (absolute) viscosity.
Air, natural gas, hydrocarbon vapor,
ammonia, carbon dioxide, carbon
monoxide, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur
dioxide
To: LMNO Engineering home page Unit Conversions Trouble printing?
Units:
o
C=degrees Celsuis, K=Kelvin,
o
F=degrees Fahrenheit,
o
R=degrees Rankine, lb-s/ft
2
=pound-second per
square foot, slug/ft-s=slug per foot per second, N-s/m
2
=Newton-second per square meter,
kg/m-s=kilogram per meter per second, SG=specific gravity
The viscosity on this page is the dynamic (or absolute) viscosity. Dynamic viscosity of gases is primarily a
function of temperature. This variation is provided in Crane (1988) as a graph for hydrocarbon vapors and
natural gases, and as an equation for other common gases. The impact of pressure is minor and the
viscosity correction for pressure is less than 10% for the gases in our calculation for pressures up to 500 psi
(34.5 bar) (Crane, 1988).
Hydrocarbon vapors and Natural gases
The LMNO Engineering calculation takes the user input temperature and extracts viscosity from the graph
on page A-5 in Crane (1988), performing linear interpolation if needed. The input temperature is restricted
to the range 0 < temperature < 1000
o
F.
Other gases
Viscosity is computed using Sutherland's formula (Crane, 1988):
=
o
*(a/b)*(T/To)
3/2
a = 0.555T
o
+ C
b = 0.555T + C
where
= viscosity in centipoise at input temperature T

o
= reference viscosity in centipoise at reference temperature T
o
T = input temperature in degrees Rankine
T
o
= reference temperature in degrees Rankine
C = Sutherland's constant
The following table gives the values of Sutherland's constant and the reference temperature and viscosity
for the gases used in the LMNO Engineering calculation. Values of Sutherland's constant are from Crane
(1988, p.A-5). The reference temperatures and viscosities were selected from CRC (1984, pp.F-42-44).
Gas Viscosity Calculator http://www.lmnoeng.com/Flow/GasViscosity.htm
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Sutherland's constant,C
T
o
(
o
R)

o
(centipoise)
standard air 120 524.07 0.01827
ammonia, NH
3 370 527.67 0.00982
carbon dioxide, CO
2 240 527.67 0.01480
carbon monoxide, CO 118 518.67 0.01720
hydrogen, H
2
72 528.93 0.00876
nitrogen, N
2 111 540.99 0.01781
oxygen, O
2
127 526.05 0.02018
sulfur dioxide, SO
2 416 528.57 0.01254
Validity
For hydrocarbon vapors and natural gases, input temperature T is restricted to the range
0 < temperature < 1000
o
F.
For other gases, input temperature must be at least absolute zero (0 K).
If the input temperature is outside the valid range, an error message is printed and viscosity is not
computed.
The impact of pressure is minor, and the viscosity correction for pressure is less than 10% for the gases in
our calculation for pressures up to 500 psi (34.5 bar) (Crane, 1988).
References
Chemical Rubber Company (CRC). 1984. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Weast, Robert C.,
editor. 65th edition. CRC Press, Inc. Boca Raton, Florida. USA.
Crane Company. 1988. Flow of fluids through valves, fittings, and pipe. Technical Paper No. 410 (TP 410).

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LMNO Engineering, Research, and Software, Ltd.
7860 Angel Ridge Rd. Athens, Ohio 45701 USA +1 (740) 592-1890
LMNO@LMNOeng.com http://www.LMNOeng.com
Gas Viscosity Calculator http://www.lmnoeng.com/Flow/GasViscosity.htm
2 of 2 29/03/2011 9:33 AM