Determination of Acoustic

Velocities for Natural Gas

L. K. Thomas, SPE-AIME, Phillips Petroleum Co.
R. W. Hankinson, Phillips Petroleum Co.
K. A. Phillips, Phillips Petroleum Co.

Introduction
Some uses of acoustic velocities for natural gas are Calculation of Acoustic Velocity
to determine liquid levels in gas wells and to locate Starting from the equation for the speed of sound in
hydrate freezes, lost 'pigs', or other obstructions in a compressible fluid 9
gas pipelines. These distances can be calculated from
well defined acoustic records (Fig. 1a) by associating
the number of pipe sections with their corresponding
Vt = [(ap) ]~
':I
up s
' • (2)

lengths. If, however, an uninterpretable acoustic it is possible to derive the following equation for a
record (Fig. 1b) is obtained, or if the lengths of the real gas (see Appendix).
pipe sections of a given flow string are unknown,
]~
distance between the shot deflection and the reflecting
surface can be obtained by integrating the relation- Vt-
_ [ gczKRT
P
1-- -
(az) . (3)

ship between velocity distance and time z ap T

dx Eq. 3 can also be expressed in terms of the isentropic

v = dt (1) expansion coefficient, n, since
K
The utility of this technique depends upon one's (4)
ability to calculate acoustic velocities and to measure
n = -1 _-p_(--,--oz~) , .
system variables such as gas gravity· or composition, z ap T
temperature, temperature gradient and pressure. Making this substitution yields
In the past, 1 acoustic velocities have been calcu-
lated from an approximate relationship involving
Vt = \}gcznRT . (5)
atmospheric heat capacity ratios rather than ratios To compute the velocity of sound in a real gas from
that are a function of pressure .. As has been pointed either Eq. 3 or Eq. 5, it is necessary to know the PVT
out, 8 this approximate relationship provides a good behavior of the gas and the variation of the heat
working equation for calculating acoustic velocities capacity ratio with temperature and pressure. To
at low pressure ranges but should not be used at accomplish this, an equation of state for natural gas
higher pressures. was developed.
The purpose of this work is to present a method
for rigorously calculating acoustic velocities for natu- Benedict-Webb-Rubin Equation
ral gas over a broad range of temperatures, pressures Of State for Natural Gas
and gas gravities. An equation of state based on the well known eight-

Acoustic velocities for natural gas are calculated as a function of temperature, pressure,
and gas gravity. The method is based on.a generalized equation of state for natural gas that
may also be used to calculate a number of thermodynamic properties such as specific
internal energy and isentropic expansion.

JULY,_ 1970 889

 constant Benedict-Webb-Rubin 7 (BWR) equation was
developed for natural gas. A comprehensive treatment
of this work was published earlier5 and only a brief
summary is presented here.
Expressed in pseudoreduced form, the BWR equa-
tion of state is given by

Pp·r = ~;:. + (Bor Tpr - Aor - Co/Tv/)/Vpr 2

+ (br TP1' - a1.)/Vp1· 3 + a1. a1./Vpr6

TUBING COLLAR UNINTERPRETABLE + [c,r (1 - y1./Vp1· 2 ) e-"Yr/Vpr
2
]/Vpr 3 Tp/·
REFLECTIONS TUBING COLLAR
(6)
REFLECTION
The pseudoreduced volume is defined as
v (7)
Vvr = RT ' ..
_ _'fi_C

Ppc
and is related to Tvn Pvr and gas compressibility fac-
tor, z, by the following equation:

LIQUID REFECTION (8)

A
The basic gas compressibility data 2 as presented
8
in tabular reduced form by Poettmann and Carpenter6
Fig. !-Acoustic records. were used to evaluate the reduced BWR coefficients;
Two sets of coefficients were developed to obtain the
desired accuracy over the entire Pvr range from 0.4
to 15. The first set of reduced BWR coefficients,
750
Table 1, is applicable for Pvr from 0.4 to 5 and the
F 700 second set applies to the range of Pvr from 5 to 15.
141.
a:
::;::)
I-
650 The low reduced temperature limit of the correlation
<
a: is Tvr = 1.1.
1.41 600
0...
::::!!
w
I- 550 Correlation of Pseudocritical Temperature and
.....1
500
Pseudocritical Pressure with Gas Gravity
<
u
i= Data relating gas composition to gravity were obtained
a:
u
450
on 84 casinghead gas wells from the Phillips Natural
0
0
::;::)
400 Gas and Gasoline Dept. and were used to extend the
1.41
U)
0... 350 Tpc = 170.491 +307.344 ?'g NGPSA 2 • 4 correlations for the critical properties of
300 natural gas vs gas gravity. The Phillips data were all
.5 .6 .7 .6 .9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 recent (less than 7 years old) and represent wells
GAS GRAVITY from different fields in several states. They were lim-
Fig. 2-Pseudocritical temperature as a ited to those points analyzed by gas chromatography
function of gas gravity. rather than by wet analysis.
The data from the well logs were processed as
follows:
1. The pseudocritical temperatures and pseudo-
680
< critical pressures at each point were calculated using
~ 670
w'
a:
::;::) 660
U)
U)
w
a: 650 TABLE I-COEFFICIENTS FOR THE REDUCED
a...
.....1
BENEDICT-WEBB-RUBIN EQUATION OF
< 640
u STATE FOR NATURAL GAS
i= 630
a:
u Coefficient Pprfrom 0.4 to 5.0 Ppr from 5.0 to 15.0
0
0 620 a,. 0.001290236 0.0014507882
::;::)
w
U)
a... 610 Aor 0.38193005 0.37922269
br 0.022199287 0.024181399
.6 .7 .8 .9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Bor 0.12215481 0.11812287
Cr -0.015674794 0.037905663
GAS GRAVITY 0.027271364 0.19845016
Cor
Fig. 3-Pseudocritical pressure as a ar 0.023834219 0.048911693
function of gas gravity. Yr 0.43617780 0.0631425417

890 JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY

 a weighted molar average of the pure component Ao =A or R 2 Tpc 2/Ppc , (18)
criticals.
b = br R 2 Tpc 2/Ppc 2 (19)
(9)
Bo = BarR Tpc/Ppc (20)
(10). C = Cr R Tpc /Ppc 2
3 5
(21)
2. Points relating pseudocritical temperature and Co == Cor R 2 Tpc 4 /Ppc , (22)
pseudocfitical pressure to gravity from the Engineer-
ing Data Book 2 • 4 and from Phillips were fit with the a = ar R3 Tpc3/Ppc3 (23)
best equations in the least-squares sense. The resulting y = Y1· R2 Tpc2/Ppc2 (24)
straight-line correlations are shown graphically in
Figs. 2 and 3 and are given by the following equations: Differentiating Eq. 16 yields
cJ7 e-~fv
2
6 [ cJ7
Tpc = 170.491 + 307.344 Yu , (11) C v =Cv 0 +--
.T V C o - -
3 y +· -- y -
Ppc = 709.604 - 58.718 yg . (12)
ce-'YfV2]
(25)
The allowable limits of impurities for the above equa- + 2V '
tions are 3 percent hydrogen sulfide, 5 percent nitro-
gen, or a total impurity content of 7 percent. Outside
these limits, the errors in pseudocritical pressure ex- (26)
ceed the 6 percent expected maximum.
The low-pressure heat capacity for natural gas can be
Evaluation of the Ratio of Heat evaluated as a function of temperature and gas gravity
Capacities for Natural Gas from the following equation5
To evaluate the ratio of heat capacity, K, for natural . Cp 0 =A+ BT + CG + DG 2 + E(TG) + FT 2
gas as a function of temperature, pressure and gravity,
it is necessary to relate the specific heat of gas at con- (27)
stant pressure To obtain the foregoing coefficients, 60 hypothetical
mixtures were generated by permuting hydrocarbon
(13) compositions over a gravity range of 0.55 to 2.0.
Molal-average l()w-pressure heat capacities were then
and specific heat at constant volume calculated for these mixtures at several temperatures,
resulting in several hundred data points relating tem-
(14) perature, gravity and molar-average low-pressure heat
capacities. Two sets of coefficients were obtained
to the PVT behavior of the gas. The approach used (Table 2), the first set for the temperature range from
in this work was to evaluate the difference in heat 0 to 200°F and the second set for a broader tem-
capacities from Eq. 15, perature range, 0 to 600°F. The average absolute
2
errors for the correlations were 1.01 and 1.37 percent,
_
Cp - Cv - - T
(.' aT
ap ) v /( ap )
oV T '
(15) respectively.

and the specific heat capacity at constant volume from Discussion of Results
Eq. 14. The specific heat at constant pressure was Acoustic velocities for natUral gas have been calcu-
then calculated by adding the results from Eqs. 14 lated· using the technique described in the previous
and 15. section and are presented in Figs. 4 through 7. These
The derivatives on the right-hand side of Eq. 15 plots represent values of acoustic velocities for natural
can be evaluated from Eq. 6, and Cv can be obtained gas vs pseudoreduced temperature and pseudoreduced
by differentiating the BWR equation for internal pressure for values of gas gravity of 0.6, 0.8, 1.0 and
energy 7 1.2, respectively.
·Figs. 8 through 11 show the relationship between
U = U0 - (A 0 + 3C 0 /T 2 ) __!_
J7 - ~(- 1
-)
2 J72

~5 + ~~ ( ~2
TABLE 2-COEFFICIENTS FOR THE CORRELATION OF
+ a5a ( ) ) LOW-PRESSURE ISOBARIC HEAT CAPACITY FOR
NATURAL GAS AS FUNCTION OF
[ (1 _ e~~/V ) J72 _ e-~v2]
2
TEMPERATURE AND GRAVITY
' . (16)
Temperature Range
0 to 200 oF 0 to 600 oF Units
with respect to temperature at constant volume. A 4.6435 3.7771 T: °F
The BWR coefficients in Eq. 16 are related to. the 8 -0.0079997 -0.0011050 Cp0:8tu/lbmole 0 R
reduced BWR coefficients listed in Table 1 by the c 5.8425 7.5281
following identities: D 1.1533 0.65621
E 0.020603 0.014609
(17) F 9.849 (l0- 6) 0.0

JULY, 1970 891

 2300
2200
2100
2000
1900
1800
1700 1400
1600 1300
u
&&I
1500 Cl) 1200
.......
u .......
UJ
Cl')
1400 LL.. 1100
.......
.......
LL..
1300 >
.......
1000
> 1200 u0 900
....... __,
u 1100 &&I 800
0
....J
>
UJ 1000 u 700
> i=
u 900 Cl)
::;:, 600
~ 0
V)
::;:, 2400 ~
0
u 2300
< 1900
2200
2100 1700
2000
1900
1500
1800
1700 1300
1600 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0
5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0
PSEUDO REDUCED PRESSURE, Ppr
PSEUDO REDUCED PRESSURE, Ppr
Fig. 4-Acoustic velocity for 0.6-gravity natural gas. Fig. 6-Acoustic velocity for 1.0-gravity natural gas.

20000,-____,1.0~____2,.0______3,.0______~----~
1900

1600
1500
1400
1300
u
&&I 1200
V)
.......
....... 1100
u LL..
~ > 1000
....... 1-
.......
LL. u0 900
.,.: _, 800
....... &&I
u0 >
700
_, u
&&I i= 600
> aoo Cl)
~
0
~ u 2000
....
Cl) -<
8
~ 1800
2000
1900
1800 1600
1700
1600 1400
1500
1400 1200
5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 \. 9.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0
PSEUDO REDUCED PRESSURE, Ppr.
PSEUDO REDUCED PRESSURE, Ppr
Fig. 5-Acoustic velocity for 0.8-gravity natural gas. Fig. 7-Acoustic velocity for 1.2-gravity natural gas.

892 JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY

 the approximate expression for the ratio of heat the correlation are: (1) less than 3 percent hydrogen
capacities, sulfide, 5 percent nitrogen or a total impurity content
KO of 7 percent; and (2) reduced temperature greater
K(T,p) ~­ (28) than 1.1 and reduced pressures between 0.4 and 15
z ' . with the applicable set of coefficients. Also limiting is
and the rigorously calculated ratio of heat capacities. the fact that the pseudocritical equations were devel-
Figs. 8 and 9 for a gas gravity of 0.6 indicate little oped from casinghead gas data, and should not be
difference in K values for pressures less than 1,000 applied to condensate-bearing gas10 with a gravity
psia, but show wide discrepancies for higher values greater thi:m 0. 8.
of pressure. Figs. 10 and 11 for 0.8-gravity gas also The BWR equation of state can be used to calcu-
show little difference between the approximate and late heat capacity ratios and in tum acoustically cal.:
rigorous values of K at low pressures- 1,000 psia culate distances with an average error of 0. 71 percent.
in Fig. 11 and up to 3,500 psia in·Fig. 10. Discrep-
. ancies inK values above these pressures, however, are Nomenclature
again appreciable. a, Ao, b, Bo,
For.illustration, calculated values of isentropic ex- c, Co, a, y = Benedict-Webb-Rubin coefficients
pansion coefficients are presented in Figs. 12 and 13. ar, Aro' br, Bro' .
Cr, Cro' ar, Yr =reduced Benedict-Webb-Rubin
Conclusions coefficients ·
It is necessary to calculate K as a function of both A, B, C, D, E, F =low-pressure heat capacity coeffi-
temperature and pressure if reliable acoustic velocity cients, Eq. 27
calculations are desired. This is especially true if sys- Cp = specific heat at constant pressure,
tem pressures are in excess of 1, 000 psia. For pres- Btu/lbmole 0 R
sures less than 1,000 psia, K values can be calculated Cp 0 = low-pressure specific heat at con-
with some degree of confidence using the approximate stand pressure, Btu/lbmole 0 R
relationship given by Eq. 28, K(T, p) ~ K 0 /z. Cv = specific heat at constant volume,
A generalized Benedict-Webb-Rubin equation of Btu/lbmole 0 R
state for natural gas has been presented to be used Cv 0 = low-pressure specific heat at con-
for predicting PVT relationships to within the experi- stant volume, Btu/lbmole 0 R
mental accuracy of the available data. The limits for gc = 32.17lbm ft/Obf sec 2)
2 ·0 r-----~~---o--:C:-:-cAL:-::C=UL-:-AT=E:::-0-::-FR::-::0-M-B=wR=-------.
EQUATION OF STATE
1.8 1.8 • CALCULATED FROM· APPROXIMATE
:.::: :.::: RELATIONSHIP. EQN. 28
:;5 1.6 ui
;::: 1.6
t=
u u
;:: 1.4
<C
<C
<..> ~ 1.4
0
1- 1-
;::5 <C
:I: 1.2 ~ 1.2
IJ...
0 G=.6 ......
0 T=60•F o G=.8
t=
<C
0::
1.0 g< 1.0 T=60"f
cr:
.8 .8

.6~~--~--~--~~---L---L--~ __L _ _ J ~~~--~--~-~~~~--~--J---~~

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10,000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10,000
PRESSURE, PSIA PRESSURE, PSIA
Fig. 8-Ratio of heat capacity for 0.6-gravity Fig. 10-Ratio of heat capacity for 0.8-gravity
natural gas at 60°F. natural gas at 60°F.
2.2 .----_;_,_._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___,
o CALCULATED FROM BWR o CALCULATED FROM BWR
EQUATION OF STATE EQUATION OF STATE
1.8 • CALCULATED FROM APPROXIMATE
:c: RELATIONSHIP, EQN.28
ui .,;
w 1.8 .... 1.6
t= i=
u u
;:: 1.6 ~ 1.4
<C
<.> <.>

~
1-
<C
..... 1.4 :I: 1.2
:I:
IJ... IJ...
0 0
G=.6 0
0 1.2 1.0
i=
<
T=100•F
~
0::
0::

.8 .8

.6~~--~--~--~~~~---L--~ __L _ _ J .6~~--~--~--~~--~--~--~--~~

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10,000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10,000
PRESSURE, PSIA PRESSURE, PSI A

Fig. 9-Ratio of heat capacity for 0.6-gravity Fig. 11-Ratio of heat capacity for 0.8-gravity
natural gas at 100°F. natural gasat 100°F.

JULY, 1970 893

 H =specific enthalpy, Btu/lbmole tion procedures presented here. We also express our
K =ratio of specific heats, Cp/Cv appreciation to Phillips Petroleum Co. for permission
K 0 = low-pressure ratio of specific to publish this paper.
heats, Cp 0 /Cv 0
n = isentropic expansion coefficient References
p = pressure, psia 1. Andsager, R. L., and Knapp, R. M.: "Acoustic Determi-
Ppc = pseudocritical pressure of a gase-
nation of Liquid Levels in Gas Wells", J. Pet. Tech. (May,
1967) 601-605.
ous mixture, psia 2. Brown, G. G., Katz, D. C.,. Oberfell, G. G. and Alden,
Pp1· = pseudoreduced pressure R. C.: "Natural Gasoline and the Volatile Hydrocarbons",
R =gas constant NGAA, Tulsa, Okla. (1948).
= 1,545 ft-lbr/(lbmole 0 R)/mole- 3. Edmister, W. C.: Applied Hydrocarbon Thermodynamics,
Gulf Publishing Co., Houston, Tex. ( 1961) 1, 58.
cular weight, in Eqs. 3, 5, 4. Engineering Data Book, Natural Gas Processors Suppliers
A-12, and A-14 Assn., Tulsa, Okla. (1957 and 1966).
= 10.73 psi cu ft/(lbmole 0 R) in 5. Hankinson, R. W., Thomas, L. K. and Phillips, K. A.:
Eqs. 7, and 17 through 24 "Predict Natural' Gas Properties", Hydrocarbon Proces-
sing, Gulf Publishing Co., Houston, Tex. (April, 1969)
= 1.987 Btu/(lbniole 0 R) in Eq. 26 106.
S = specific entropy, Btu/lbmole 0 R 6. Poettmann, F. H. and Carpenter, P. G.: "The Multiphase
T = temperature, °F, 0 R Flow of Gas, Oil and Water Through Vertical Flow
Strings", ])rill. and Prod. Prac., API (1952) 257.
T c = critical temperature, 0 R 7. Sage, B. H.: Thermodynamics of Multicomponent Sys-
Tpc = pseudocritical temperature of a tems, Reinhold Publishing Co., New York (1965) 218.
gaseous mixture, 0 R 8. Thomas, L. K.: "A Review of the Acoustic Determination
Tpr = pseudoreduced temperature of Liquid Levekin Gas Wells", J. Pet. Tech. (Aug., 1968)
784-785.
U -= specific internal energy, Btu/lb-
9. Smith, J~ M. and Van Ness, H. C.: lntroductipn to
mole Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, McGraw-Hill
U 0 = low-pressure specific internal en- Book Co., Inc., New York (1959) 251.
ergy, Btu/lbmole 10. Katz, D. L,, Cornell, D., Kobayashi, R., Poettmann, F. H.,
Vary, J. A., Ellenbaas, J. R. and Weinaug, C F.: Hand-
v =velocity, ft/sec book of Natural Gas Engineering, McGraw-Hill Book
v1 = acoustic velocity in a real gas, ft/ Co.,"Inc., New York (1959) 111.
sec
V = specific volume, cu ft/lbmole APPENDIX
V pr = pseudoreduced volume
x = distance, ft Derivation of Acoustic Velocity in a Real Gas
Yi = mole fraction of component i The equation for the speed of sound in a real com-
z = gas compressibility factor pressible fl.uid 9 is given by Eq. A-1:
y 9 = gas gravity referred to air = 1.0
p = density, Ibm/cu ft (A-1)
Subscripts Expressing Eq. A-1 in terms of specific volume we
p =pressure have
S =entropy
T = temperature . VJ =[ (A-2)
V =volume
WritingS as a function of T and p yields
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank Northern Natural Gas Co. for sup- · ds = ( as ). dT +(~) dp (A-3)
plying the field data necessary for testing the calcula- aT fJ op T

6.0
6.0
,_- 5.0
5.0 ~
"'
,_.- :z
:z ~ 4.0
w ~
:z 4.0
0 u
o CALCULATED FROM BWR
~
0:: 3.0
0
a: EQUATION OF STATE
u
3.0 1-
G=.8
0:: o CALCULATED FROM BWR ~ 2.0
0 ~
a: EQUATION OF STATE
1- 2.0
G:6
~ 1.0
1.0

O0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7QOO 8000 9000 10,000
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10.000 PRESSURE. PS lA
PRESSURE, PSIA
Fig. 13-lsentropic exponent, n, for 0.8-gravity
Fig. 12-lsentropic exponent, n, for gravity natural gas. natural gas.

894 JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY

 60 ap ) _ Cp ( ap ) _ K ( ap ) (A-8)
( av s - Cv aV + - oV T
-;n
I-
z 50 For a real gas,
0c...
LL.
0 pV = zRT (A-9)
0::
LLI 40
cD
::::!: therefore,
:::::>
~
>-
u
z
LLI
30
( ~)
av T
= _ _p_ + RT(~) (
v · v ap 'l' av
op) . (A-10)
T
:::::>
0

:~) r
LLI
0:
LL. 20 Solving for ( yields
LL.I
>
i=
<(
.....1
:::::>
p
10

( op) -
::::!:
:::::>
u
v (A-ll)
oV r - - l _ _.!!_(~)
1.0 2.0 z ap T

PERCENT ERROR
Combining Eqs. A-2, A-8, A-9 ahd A-ll gives the
Fig. 14-Frequency of error between computed ~nd desired result.
experimental well depths for 57 data points.

Dividing the above equation by dV and assuming

constant entropy for the newly formed derivatives
gives
vf =

"1 -_.!!_(~)
I K(T,
Z
p) z RT
_Gp T

Eq. A-12 can also be expressed in terms of the isen-

(A-12)

(*)p(*)R tropic expansion coe:fficient3

(A-4)
_-Pv( oVap) s
( ~~ )T n- ' . (A-13)

The terms on the right-hand side of Eq. A-4 can also by combining-Eqs. A-2, A-9 and A-13. We then have
be written as follows:
vf = ynzRT . (A-14)
(A-5) Inclusion of the gravitational constant, gc, in Eqs.
A -12 and A -14 is required to make the units con-
as) as ) sistent with the nomenclature. JPT
( av T _ T ( av 'I'
(A-6)
( ~)
Cv '·
Original manuscript received in Society of Petroleum Engineers
aT v office Aug. 6, 1969. Revised manuscript received April 6, 1970.
Paper (SPE 2579) was presented at SPE 44th Annual Fall Meeting,
held in Denver, Colo., Sept. 28-0ct. 1, 1969. © Copyright 1970
as ) _ ( aP ) ( av ) (A-7)
( 3P r - av 'I' ap 'I' •
American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engi-
neers, Inc.
This paper will be printed in Transactions volume 249, which
Combining Eqs. A-4 through A-7 yields will cover 1970.

JULY, 1970 895