Experimental determination of the kinematic viscosity of glycerol-water mixtures

Abstract

We have measured the kinematic viscosity of glycerol-water mixtures, for glycerol mass fractions ranging from 0 to 1, in the temperature range 10-50 °C. The measurements were made by using a series of Ubbelohde viscometers. Apart from comprehensiveness and comparative accuracy the present measurements expose serious errors in the limited data that were earlier available on such mixtures. It is shown that all the data can be reasonably represented by the empirical correlation (In ν m - In ν w )/(In ν g - In ν w ) = x g [1 + (1 - x g ) { a + bx g + cx g 2 }], where ν w , v g and ν m are the kinematic viscosities of water, glycerol and the mixture respectively and x g is the mass fraction of glycerol in the mixture. The constants a, b and c are tabulated in the paper as functions of temperature. This correlation can now be used at a given temperature to tailor make a mixture of prescribed kinematic viscosity. While this paper is addressed, principally, to fluid dynamicists these results should be of interest to physicists studying the liquid state and physical chemists interested in mixtures.