A Formulation for the Static Permittivity of Water and Steam at Temperatures from 238 K to 873 K at Pressures up to 1200 MPa, Including Derivatives and Debye–Hückel Coefficients

Abstract

A new formulation is presented of the static relative permittivity or dielectric constant of water and steam, including supercooled and supercritical states. The range is from 238 K to 873 K, at pressures up to 1200 MPa. The formulation is based on the ITS-90 temperature scale. It correlates a selected set of data from a recently published collection of all experimental data. The set includes new data in the liquid water and the steam regions that have not been part of earlier correlations. The physical basis for the formulation is the so-called g-factor in the form proposed by Harris and Alder. An empirical 12-parameter form for the g-factor as a function of the independent variables temperature and density is used. For the conversion of experimental pressures to densities, the newest formulation of the equation of state of water on the ITS-90, prepared by Wagner and Pruss, has been used. All experimental data are compared with the formulation. The reliability of the new formulation is assessed in all subregions. Comparisons with previous formulations are presented. Auxiliary dielectric-constant formulations as functions of temperature are included for the saturated vapor and liquid states. The pressure and temperature derivatives of the dielectric constant and the Debye–Hückel limiting-law slopes are calculated, their reliability is estimated, and they are compared with experimentally derived values and with previous correlations. All equations are given in this paper, along with short tables. An implementation of this formulation for the dielectric constant is available on disk [A. H. Harvey, A. P. Peskin, and S. A. Klein, NIST/ASME Steam Properties, NIST Standard Reference Database 10, Version 2.1, Standard Reference Data Program, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD (1997)].