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1.2. History of ASTM D 1250 This is a short overview of the ASTM D1250 s history. For more information, please refer to the web sites and documents of the API, ASTM and IP. 1.2.1. Year 1916 The start The first development of the thermal expansion of liquid hydrocarbons was published by the National Bureau of Standards (US). Owing to the lack of computer technology at this time, printed tables were published that reflected a matrix of density and Temperature - the result being a Volume Correction Factor. It took generations to replace such printed tables with formulae and procedures that can be implemented in a computer program. The original tables from 1916 were superseded in 1924, 1936 and 1945 by tables in British units. 1.2.2. Year 1952 A big step forward The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the Institute of Petroleum (IP) published the Blue Book Tables. For the first time in history these tables covered US units, British (Imperial) units and metric units. These tables were available for a base temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit and 15 degrees Celsius and for the density in API Gravity, Relative Density and Density (kg/m3) as printed lists in the standard book. Some of these tables are still used today in various countries (archaic support of LPG and NGL). 1.2.3. Year 1965 API adopted the 1952 tables The American Petroleum Institute (API) adopted the 1952 tables. A major rewrite was started in 1974. 1.2.4. Year 1980 New Temperature Correction Tables The API separated the tables and developed sets for different products: - Crude Oil - Refined Products - Special Applications - Lubricating Oils (1982) LPGs and NGLs were not yet supported. First time in history, the defined implementation procedures and not the printed tables were the standard . However, the printed tables have been published as books as well. 1.2.5. Year 1998 Support of LPGs and NGLs With the Technical Publication 25 (TP-25) of tables 23E and 24E, LPG and NGL support was provided. 1.2.6. Year 2004 New needs and possibilities -> New Standard ASTM D 1250-04 After 1980, many additional needs of the petroleum industry were registered by the API. In the meantime, computer technology made incredible progress. The API reacted to industry needs and developed the new 2004 version of the ASTM D 1250 standard and released it in May 2004. The defined implementation procedures are the defined standard, which also specify the technical data format and requirements for floating point calculations. No printed table books are available. 2.1. Limits of the former standard versions At the time of preceding ASTM D1250 releases, computer technology had not developed far enough to support the processing of complicated procedures whereby the same results, independent of host, operating system and compiler/language used would be returned. Compromises were necessary which lead to rough rounding and in the worst case, differing results. Furthermore, the procedures (tables) were based on different calculation conditions, such as a temperature base of: - 60 degree Fahrenheit - 15 degree Celsius or - 20 degree Celsius (never included into the ASTM D 1250-80 standard) and a density of - API Gravity - Relative Density or - Density (absolute in kg/m3) 2.2. Example of differences within ASTM D 1250-80 It was not possible to achieve the same results between the different calculation conditions. Here are some examples of ASTM D 1250-80 calculations where different results are returned by using the same measurements, but different units. No special rounding rules are in place, these are calculations returned by the normal standard. The formulas to convert the units are: Temperature: C = (F 32) / 1.8 Density: Kg/m3 = 141.5 * 999.016 / (API + 131.5) 999.016 reflects the new density of water @ 60 F in kg/m3 We measured the same sample of oil in U.S. customary units and metric units:
Thus we have two measurements of exactly the same sample of crude oils and we will calculate the same standardized quantities, with a small, but critical difference: one at 60 F with U.S. customary units and another one at 20 C with metric units. Here the example with American units at 60 degree Fahrenheit:
Now, we calculate the example with international units at 20 degree Celsius. The same sample of oil, the same measured values, just different units - but still the same measurements and based on 20 degree Celsius:
Here are the results of the same measurements, but performed and reported in different units:
This is a difference of 0.5% from the same input data, calculated with different units and a different base - with the same standard. The net result of this test is that ASTM D 1250-80 is inaccurate, not just because of the limits of the computer technology, but because of the standard itself. This was unacceptable at a time where international trading and movements of petroleum products reached new levels - the development of a new standard was required. The API reacted and the new standard reflects the current and future needs of the oil industry. 2.3. Changes in the new standard ASTM D 1250-04 compared to the previous standards After the release of ASTM D 1250-80 in 1980 the needs of the oil industry diversified and computer technology made a huge progress. It was time to improve the standard. y The 1980 Tables were based upon data obtained using the International Practical temperature Scale 1968 (IPTS68). This has been superseded by the International Temperature Scale 1990 (ITS-90). Input temperatures are measured using the ITS-90 and must be converted to IPTS-68 y The accepted value of the standard density of water at 60F has changed slightly from the value of 999.012 kg/m3 used in the 1980 Standard, to 999.016 kg/m3. This affects the conversion of density values with relative density and API gravity. The impact of this change can be seen in Tables 5, 6, 23, and 24. The (absolute) density is not affected. y In 1988 the IP produced implementation procedures for 20C (Tables 59 A, B and D and 60 A, B and D) by extending the procedures used for the 15C Tables. This was in response to the needs of countries that use 20C as their standard temperature. The calculation based on 20C is now included in the 2004 standard. y Tables for lubricating oils were developed and approved as parts of the ASTM D1250 Standard, but were never fully documented. The implementation procedures are now incorporated in the Standard. y The 1980 tables covered only small measurement ranges and quite often these ranges had gaps. The ranges have now been extended to lower temperatures and higher densities (i.e., lower API gravities) and the gaps have been removed. y Real-time density measurement using density meters has become more commonly used for input into VCF calculations; the usage of such devices results in higher pressures at the point of measurement. This pressure effect must be simultaneously taken into account with temperature effects. Pressure and temperature corrections have been combined into one procedure. y Rounding and truncation of initial and intermediate values have been eliminated. Rounding is only applied to the final VCF values.
The previous Standard used a format that resulted in CTL with 5 significant digits meaning that means that the values were rounded to 4 or 5 decimal digits, depending upon whether the CTL value was greater than or less than one. The final VCF values are now rounded consistently to 5 decimal digits. The Standard also provides a mechanism to provide un-rounded factors that, when combined, give the overall rounded CTPL. The 1980 Tables implementation procedure used integer arithmetic in order to allow all existing computer equipment to achieve consistent results. With modern-day 64-bit operating system and hardware architectures, this complexity of the 1980 procedure is no longer needed. Double-precision floating-point math procedures are now used. Flow computers in the field have become common for real-time measurement of petroleum fluids. These require improved convergence methods for the correction of observed density to base density. A more robust convergence scheme now accomplishes this calculation. The range of application for the 1980 Chapter 1.1.2.1 method has been extended to be consistent with the ranges now used. The implementation procedure for pressure correction is now the defined standard and no longer the printed table values. As shown above, there were discrepancies between the previous 60F, 15C and 20C Tables. Starting from the same input density and temperature, each table may produce a slightly different VCF value for the same output temperature. These differences could not been concealed in the 1980 Tables by the rounding and truncation procedures. This revision adopts a new procedure for calculating CTL and CPL factors for metric tables. The procedure ensures that the results are the same as those obtained by using the 60F calculation. The calculation of Special Applications has been changed. In ASTM S 1250-80 such methods were only provided to calculate the VCF from Base to alternate conditions (tables 6C, 24C, 54C and 60C). The calculation was based on the thermal expansion factor in relation to the base temperature (15 C, 20 C or 60 F). The base density takes no affect and is not an input of the calculation. In ASTM D 1250-04 all procedures provide the calculation of Special Applications in the same way. The thermal expansion factor and the density are used as input. The thermal expansion factor must now always be provided based on 60 degree Fahrenheit in whether 1/F or 1/C. It is technically called APLHA 60. These changes ensure that consistent results are returned across all supported ranges of the new standard. Previous editions of the printed Tables assumed that density measurements were made with a glass hydrometer. The odd-numbered printed 1980 Tables all included a hydrometer correction on the observed density. In this Standard, no glass hydrometer corrections are applied. Methods to correct glass hydrometer readings for use in this Standard are given in API MPMS Chapter 9 and can be applied before the calculation.
2.4. Differences of results to the former (1952 and 1980) standard y We calculated the full supported density and temperature range of all 1980 procedures with standard rounding (no German Rounding). Then we then ran those examples against the corresponding procedures of ASTM D 1250-04. y The second step was to take the largest differences and calculate the quantities using the SAP Quantity Conversion Interface. This method allowed us to ascertain the degree of calculation difference which we would encounter in application usage. y As noted above, since the 1952 version is only available as printed tables for a different product classification, we only made a statistical analysis for approx. 100 data points and compared the results to the 2004 version. y We applied the same procedure to compare the computerized crude oil 1952 table 6 data with the corresponding conversion routines of the 1980 and 2004 implementations 2.4.1. Comparison of 1980 procedures and 2004 procedures y By calculating the entire supported ranges of ASTM D 1250-80 we made more than 100 million calls to the routines. After all calls were completed, we had 42.295.594 corresponding combinations of density and temperature. y 24.213.242 differences were reported. We calculated two portions of differences - the differences where 2004 provides higher values and the differences where 2004 provides lower values. For each 1980 table we listed the average and the maximum difference. For the maximum difference we also listed the combination of density and temperature. In this way we were able to investigate what effect the differences could have within the application.
2.4.2. Calculation of the maximum differences We then took the biggest difference and calculated it using the SAP application. Here are the results: Example with ASTM D 1250-80, tables 5A, 6A and D 1250-04, corresponding procedures:
2.4.3. Analysis of differences between 2004/1980 and 1952 versions As noted above, the 1952 version is only available as printed tables for a different product classification, thus we made a statistical analysis for approx. 100 data points for temperature and compared the results to the 2004 version.
We then also started a full comparison run for the computerized version of table 6 (1952) with the corresponding 1980 and 2004 implementations. Gravity : 000 - 100 API Temperature : 000 - 150 FAH Number of calls: 19,890
This detailed analysis confirms our statistical finding above. Noticeable are the large differences (Maximum - %) for temperature values far away from the base temperature of 60 F. 2.4.4. Summary of differences The following table summarizes our results.
implementations of the 1980 and 2004 version. When compared against one another, the average differences in the results of the 2004 and 1980 version of the standard are small - usually, the 5th significant digit - this is what has been expected. Differences between the printed 1952 version (not available as formula based implementation procedure) and these two versions have been
statistically examined and are found to be in a range of 0.05%, i.e. up to the 4th significant digit with respect to rounding. It is a business decision if these differences are acceptable or not. There are additional major differences between both computerized versions of the ASTM D1250 standard that should be taken in consideration. ASTM D 1250-80 cannot give the same results when: y different hosts, operating systems and programming languages are used y different base temperatures are used y units based on different temperatures are used y pressure plays a role The procedures provided in ASTM D 1250-04 for the simulation of ASTM D 1250-80 table calculations do not provide the expected results. At QuantityWare, we implemented all of those procedures and compared them. There are many major differences between the output of the ASTM D1250-80 and the simulated ASTM D1250-80 tables within ASTM D1250-04. The QuantityWare Recommendation: ASTM D 1250-04 appears to have been well designed, is reliable and fulfils all business needs. Unless there are pressing business considerations for the further usage of ASTM D 1250-52 or ASTM D-1250-80 within an organisation, we recommend the adoption and implementation of ASTM D1250-04, especially within new implementation projects. QuantityWare also delivers full versions of the ASTM D1250-80 implementation, which may still be required due to contractual or governmental regulations. Implementations of the ASTM D 1250-52 tables are available for selected tables as well.