Speed of Sound Measurements for Liquid Squalane Up to a Pressure of 20 MPa

The speed of sound of liquid squalane is measured with the double-path pulse-echo technique, utilizing a piezoelectric quartz (8 MHz) positioned between two reflectors with distinct path lengths. Calibration of the apparatus is carried out with water, for which highly accurate reference data exist. The present experiments with squalane cover the temperature range from 298.15 K to 493.15 K and a pressure from 0.1 MPa to 20 MPa. The total relative expanded (\(k = 2\)) uncertainty \(U_r(w)\) for the speed of sound is estimated to be ±0.1 %. The present data are consistent with literature values, which are, however, only available at ambient pressure. To validate the present speed of sound measurements, the density and isobaric heat capacity are integrated numerically from the sampled data over most of the measurement range, employing rigorous thermodynamic identities. With deviations of about 0.1 %, the resulting density data are favorably compared with literature values. The resulting isobaric heat capacity, for which just a single reference with data at pressures above the ambient exists, deviates by up to 6 %.