Velocity of Sound in Vegetable Oils
By Clurissa J a v a n a u d andR.R. R a h a l k a r *
The velocity of sound in seven vegetable oils has been measured to an
accuracy o f f 0.3 ms-'. The different values of the velocities are correlated
on the basis of composition. Average values for the temperaturecoefficient
of velocity, at room temperature, and for the dispersion between 2 and 10
MHz are also given.
Introduction
Previous measurements of the velocity of sound in vege-
table oils have had an accuracy of at best k 1ms-'. The most
extensive work, including over forty oils, was that by Gouw
and Vlugter'. Less accurate measurements on four oils, but
coveringa wide temperature range (10- 500 C) were carried
out by Kuo2.
Vegetable oils are composed of mixtures of triglycerides
whose own physical properties differ from one another by
only a few percent. Furthermore, all the oils studied here
are composed of glycerides containing mainly only oleic
and linoleic acids. The proportion of these acids in a given
oil can vary by up to ten percent of the total oil content so
that any accurate measurement or theoretical evaluation of
the speed of sound should be linked with the actual compo-
sition of the oils used.
In this paper it is intended to relate some accurate experi-
mental measurements to a development of the theory of the
velocity of ultrasound in liquid mixtures.
Experimental
The equipment used was a modem version of Carstensen's
double liquid system3 to which the reader is referred for
details. A thin mylar film separates the oil from pure dis-
tilled water and when taking measurements the ultrasonic
tranducers are moved together at a fmed separation using a
BBC microcomputer. The transducers are quartz crystals
operating at 2MHz and odd harmonics thereof.
By using this velocity difference technique, it is possible
to obtain as much accuracy in velocity differences as would
normally be obtained in the velocity alone, provided that
adequate temperature stabilisation is available. The bath
containing the liquid is immersed in a water bath which is
stable to k 0.1' C and this is the ultimate limit on the achiev-
able accuracy. The liquid bath possesses a thin lid separat-
ing it from air,but even so it is desirable to work within a few
degrees of room temperature to prevent temperature gra-
dients from being set up in the oils. The accuracy of the
apparatus has been checked using castor oil, the results of
which are shown in Table 1. These measurements compare
well with previously accepted values4v5.At all times, the
values for the speed of sound in distilled water were taken
from Del Gross0 and Mader' to five significant figures.
Results a n d Discussion
Measurements on the speed of sound in the oils were car-
ried out at three frequencies (2,6 and 10 MHz) at 22.0 and
23.90 C and at 6 MHz, only, at 19.4' C. (Measurements at
Authors' address: Dr. ClarissaJavanaud and Dr. R R Rahalkar,
Food Research Institute, Colney Lane, Norwich NR4 7UA,
Great Britain.
Fat Sa. Technol.
9O.Jahrgang Nr.2 1988
Uber die Schallgeschwindigkeitin pflanzlichen Olen
Es wurde die Schallgeschwindigkeitin sieben pflanzlichen Olen mit
einer Genauigkeit von f 0.3 ms-' gemessen. Die unterschiedlichen
Geschwindigkeitswerte korrelieren mit der Zusammensetzung. Durch-
schnittswerte fur den Temperaturkoeffizienten der Geschwindigkeit bei
Raumtemperatur und fur die Dispersion zwischen 2 und 10 MHz werden
ebenfalls angegeben.
the other frequencies were not possible due to the great
distance between nulls). From these measurements, the
velocity of sound in the oils at 200 C and 6 MHz has been
estimated graphically and the results recorded in column 1
Table 1
Speed of Sound in Castor Oil
(i) T = 19.4OC
Frequency (MHz) Velocity (ms-')
2.042 1523.4
6.180 1527.0
10.318 1530.7
(ii) T = 23.9OC
Frequency (MHz) Velocity (ms-')
2.040 1509.3
6.190 1511.9
of Table 3. The estimated accuracy of these velocities is
k 0.3 ms-I. Also recorded is the average temperature coef-
ficient of velocity and the average dispersionbetween 2 and
10 MHz. The former quantity agrees well with the measure-
ments by Kuo2. In column 3 of the table Gouw and Vlugter's
results' for the same oils at 4OoChave been listed. Fatty
acid composition of the oils was determined by gas chroma-
tography of the derived methyl esters7; the results are
shown in Table 2.
In order to predict the velocity of sound in an oil from the
oil's constituent triglycerides, two steps are necessary. The
first involves a knowledge or estimate of the speed of sound
in the relevant triglycerides. The second involves combin-
ing the component velocities correctly to obtain an appro-
priate value for a mixture.
The way in which the fatty acids are distributed amon
the triglycerides in each oil has not been well known 8,
although liquid chromatography may soon provide a
method of achievingthisg.Furthermore, the speed of sound
has not been measured in all the relevant triglycerides.
However, two facts are well established, viz. the speed of
sound in all the fatty acid methyl esters from acetate to
nonadecanoate lo and the speed of sound in certain triglyce-
rides. Examination of these data suggeststhe use of a simple
approximate formula for the contribution to the speed of
sound in a triglyceride molecule from a given fatty acid,
namely
u = u~ + uln + u2m (1)
where n = number of carbon atoms in the component fatty
73
acid (12 < n < 24 for the oils studied here) and m = number
of carbon double bonds. Q, u1and u2 are constants.
Three important points concerning the use of this equa-
tion follow:
1.The constants Q, uI and u2 are here chosen to have the
values 1333, 7 and 8 ms-I, respectively, at 2OOC so that
equation (1) will agree closely with those experimental
values which are available,namely n = 12,m = 0 and n = 18,
m = 1 and m = 2 (Gouw and VZugter').This means that u has
values typical of a triglyceride rather than of a fatty acid (the
latter being typically 60 ms-' less than the former).
view of the simple approximations made throughout this
treatment. However, it should be borne in mind that neither
equation is reliable for the lower members of thC homolog-
ous series, viz n Q 6.
The formula governing the speed of sound in a mixture
of triglycerides, for each of which the speed of sound is
known is now discussed. In general, when mixing two
liquids for which the velocity of sound is known, the resul-
tant speed is not simply the weighted mean of the two com-
ponents. Previously, a quantity uk VM has been formed,
where u = velocity of sound and VM= molar volume, i.e.

Table 2
Fatty Acid Composition of Oilr

Oil
Fatty
Acid* Safflower Sunflower Corn Soyabean Vegetable Groundnut Olive
12:o 0.36 0.18
14:O 0.19 0.10
16:O 6.79 6.00 11.33 9.73 6.12 10.74 11.16
16: 1 0.86
18:O 2.19 3.16 1.57 2.86 1.29 2.36 2.35
18: 1 13.16 23.40 27.12 27.59 54.89 54.52 71.75
18:2 76.42 66.72 58.47 50.02 27.60 24.99 12.64
18:3 0.11 0.22 0.79 8.19 7.81 0.45
20:o 0.35 0.31 0.48 1.25
20: 1 0.33 0.20 1.12 1.21
22:o 2.97
24:O 1.26

*The numbers before and after the colon denote the number of carbon atoms and of double bonds, respectively,
represented by n and m in the text.

Table 3
molecular wei ht divided by density. This quantity, for
Velocity of Sound in Vegetable Oils (ms-') H
values of k = and k = f has been found empirically to
describe resonably well a suitable additive function of velo-
Javanaud and & l k d Gouw and Vlugter' city (see Rao12 and DanursoI3). However, a different line of
f = 6.2 MHz f =2MHz
approach is taken here.
T=200C T=400C When forming an ideal solution of two liquids both the
density p and the compressibihty x of the mixture are addi-
Oil Vob Vcal vob Vcal
tive. Thus the velocity of the mixture can be calculated in
Safflower 1471.5 1471.5 1408 1408 terms of the velocities, densities and compressibilities of its
Sunflower 1470.4 1471.0 1406 1408 components. Here, we refer to an article by UrickI4, for a
Corn 1470.3 1469.5 1403 1408 derivation of the following equation (his equation (1)).
Soyabean 1469.8 1470.2 1404 1405
Vegetable 1469.0 1469.3
Groundnut 1468.2 1468.0 1400 1399
Olive 1465.9 1465.6 1400.5 1399
where u = velocity of sound in component 1, v = resultant
Average temperature coefficient velocity of sound in the mixture, p = volume fraction of
of velocity at ZBC = -3.4 *
0.1 ms-'
Average dispersion in velocity
liquid component 2
between 2MHz and lOMHz = 0.5 k 0.1 ms-' a = PZ-PI b= x2 - x2
PI XI
2. It is implicitly assumed here that the velocity of sound in Similarly, it can be shown that
a mixed triglyceride is the arithmetic average of that in
simple triglycerides and furthermore that there is no differ- v2= d (3)
ence in velocity due to molecular structure. (This latter (1-aa) (1-ba)
assumption is not true, but differences in u are small, typi-
cally 1 ms-', Gouw and Vlugter'). where w = velocity of sound in component 2 and CL = 1- p
3. Equation (1)has been used here in preference to the well
known Smittenberg relation (Gouw and Vlugter", and Smit- Making use of the fact that for the triglycerides forming
tenberg and Mulder") for homologous series. The latter, the ve etable oils, a 5 0.015 and b 5 0.06, Gouw and
requiring the use of a further constant is unnecessary in K!~gter'?'~, aba2 and abp' can be neglected in comparison
Fat Sci. Technol.
74 9O.Jahrgang Nr.2 1988
with (a+b)a and (a+b) p, respectively. Then, eliminating
(a+ b) from equations (2) and (3), it follows that
2 = pd + (1-P)U2 (4)
Under the circumstances where u = a + 6 I , v =a + b2and
w = a + h3, where 6 , , 6 2 and are << a, it follows that
v = pw + (1-P)U (5)
This formula has been implicitly assumed in work on the
velocity of sound in oil mixtures by Hustadet aL16.The gene-
ralisation of equations (4)and (5)to a multicomponent mix-
ture follows at once,
P 159 [1967].
v2 = c pill$
i=l
P
v =
i=l
c
piui (7)
where ui is the velocity of the ith component triglyceride of
volume fraction pi and
P K. E. Peers and P A . I: Swoboda, Octanoate: An Assay for Oxida-
&=1.
i=l
p = number of components.
The measured chemical compositions of the oils are
given in Table 2. Two approximations ensue from the use of
these figures. Firstly, the listed percentages need to be
renormalised to 100%due to the presence of small spurious
peaks. Secondly, the measured chemical compositions are
in terms of the weights rather than the volume fractions of
the fatty acids.
By combining equation (1) with equation (6) we obtain
the values for the velocity of sound in vegetable oils at 20° C
given in the second column of Table 3. In view of the simple
approach taken here, the results are encouraging. Only
corn oil and soya oil appear in different orders in columns
1 and 2. It is possible that the experimental value for corn is
high, perhaps due to the presence of impurities. The range
of unsaponifiable matter in corn oil is 0.8-2.9%, whereas
for the other oils studied here it does not exceed 1.4% and is
typically less than 1%. Gouw and VZugte~'and Hustad et all6
find the speed of sound in soya oil to be slightly higher than
that in corn oil, while Hussinand Poveyl7 are unable to distin-
guish between them. (Variabilityin the composition of oils
from different sources could affect the velocity by up to 0.8
ms-').
Finally, in column 4 of Table 3 are presented values of the
speed of sound at 400C derived by Gouw and Vlugte~'from
the measured density, refractive index and iodine value of
the oils. Their equation (12) involving these quantities is
very complicated and gives less accurate results than our
own. Although they have applied their formula to a much
Fat Sci. Technol.
90.Jahrgang Nr.2 I988
larger number of oils, the only ones for which reasonable
agreement between theory and experiment are obtained
are the ones containing a mixture of triglycerideswith non-
conjugated, non-polymerised, straight chain component
fatty acids. (For example, castor oil with its high proportion
of ricinoleic acid, containing OH groups, has hydrogen
bonding with subsequent ,anomalous" behaviour). Thus
the approach presented here has a comparable range of
application and would seem to give more accurate results.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their thanks to Dr. P Richmond
and Dr. D . C. Steytlcr for helpful suggestions concerning this works,
to K. E. Peers for carrying out the fatty acid composition analysis
and to Dr. D . Cebula for useful comments concerning the final
manuscript.
7Fi