A new and reliable model for predicting methane viscosity at high pressures and high temperatures

In recent years, there has been an increase of interest in the flow of gases at relatively high pressures and high temperatures. Hydrodynamic calculation of the energy losses in the flow of gases in conduits, as well as through the porous media constituting natural petroleum reservoirs, requires knowledge of the viscosity of the fluid at the pressure and temperature involved. Although there are numerous publications concerning the viscosity of methane at atmospheric pressure, there appears to be little information available relating to the effect of pressure and temperature upon the viscosity. A survey of the literature reveals that the disagreements between published data on the viscosity of methane are common and that most investigations have been conducted over restricted temperature and pressure ranges. Experimental viscosity data for methane are presented for temperatures from 320 to 400 K and pressures from 3000 to 140000 kPa by using falling body viscometer. A summary is given to evaluate the available data for methane, and a comparison is presented for that data common to the experimental range reported in this paper. A new and reliable correlation for methane gas viscosity is presented. Predicted values are given for temperatures up to 400 K and pressures up to 140000 kPa with Average Absolute Percent Relative Error (EABS) of 0.794.