How to Document Fluid Properties

What?

Engineers need to find values of material properties. Also, we often need to estimate values because we cannot easily find the values we are looking for. For example, we often use the properties of water to estimate the values for aqueous solutions.

This article describes how to list fluid properties in your professional documentation.

Why?

  • So you know the source and the conditions that were used to estimate the property.
  • So others who read your documentation can know the same things.
  • Often material properties will be unknown or there will be diagreements between references. When you document your approaches, you leave a trail so that your work can be modified as better information become available.

Performance Criteria

  • List the name of the fluid
  • List the property (name or symbol)
  • Document the source of the fluid property
  • List the conditions (temperature, pressure)
  • List assumptions
  • Be concise; minimum information needed to get the job done

Example

fluid-property-example.png
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License