New, wide-range reference equations for the thermal conductivity of ethene and propene as a function of temperature and density are presented. The equations are based in part upon a body of experimental data that has been critically assessed for internal consistency and for agreement with theory whenever possible. For ethene, we estimate the uncertainty (at the 95% confidence level) for the thermal conductivity from 110 K to 520 K at pressures up to 200 MPa to be 5% for the compressed liquid and supercritical phases. For the low-pressure gas phase (to 0.1 MPa) over the temperature range 270 K to 680 K, the estimated uncertainty is 4%. The correlation is valid from 110 K to 680 K and up to 200 MPa, but it behaves in a physically reasonable manner down to the triple point and may be used at pressures up to 300 MPa, although the uncertainty will be larger in regions where experimental data were unavailable. In the case of propene, data are much more limited. We estimate the uncertainty for the thermal conductivity of propene from 180 K to 625 K at pressures up to 50 MPa to be 5% for the gas, liquid, and supercritical phases. The correlation is valid from 180 K to 625 K and up to 50 MPa, but it behaves in a physically reasonable manner down to the triple point and may be used at pressures up to 100 MPa, although the uncertainty will be larger in regions where experimental data were unavailable. For both fluids, uncertainties in the critical region are much larger, since the thermal conductivity approaches infinity at the critical point and is very sensitive to small changes in density.
Keywords: critical phenomena; ethene; ethylene; propene; propylene; reference correlations; thermal conductivity; transport properties.