Advancing vapour liquid equilibrium measurement with microwave resonators

This thesis presents the development of a novel microwave resonator apparatus for measuring fluid phase behaviour. In contrast to conventional approaches, the microwave resonator for vapour-liquid equilibrium measurement is non-invasive, fast, and incorporates mixing of the small sample volume. A demonstration with a simple non-polar binary mixture measured saturated dielectric constants, liquid volume fraction, composition, density, and vapour quality to the accuracy of existing analytical techniques. Further, measurements of a non-polar – polar mixture led to the development and demonstration of dielectric mixing rules, expanding the applicability of microwave techniques. Future work will test the resonator on cryogenic refrigerant mixtures.