Natural_Gas
Natural_Gas is an ideal gas mixture. By default, the mixture consists of the following gases.
Gas Mole Fraction
CH4 0.9512332
C2H6 0.01835537
C3H8 0.00237727
C4H10 0.000561767
C5H12 0.0002500951
C6H14 0.0007896907
N2 0.00088950245
CO2 0.025543105
However, the composition of the mixture can be changed by editing the NaturalGasInfo.txt file contained in the EES\USERLIB\EES_System folder.
Natural_Gas can be used just like any of the built-in ideal gas substances. All of the functions that are available for ideal gases, e.g., CH4, are available for Natural_Gas as well, including Viscosity and Conductivity. The viscosity of the gas mixture determined using the Wilke Approximation as described in Eq. 9-5.2 of Reid, Prausnitz, and Sherwood. The thermal conductivity is determined using the Mason and Saxena modification, as described in Eq. 10-6.2. of Reid, Prausnitz, and Sherwood. The heating values are determined as a mole-fraction average of the gases in the mixture.
Natural_Gas can be used with the Combustor functions in the Component Library.
Air and Natural_Gas are the only substances in the EES database that do not follow the ideal gas name convention. All other substances are modeled as a real substance if the fluid name is spelled out, (e.g., Nitrogen) and as an ideal gas if the fluid name is chemical formula (e.g., N2). Air and Natural_Gase are modeled as an ideal gas mixture.