The Commission on Thermodynamics of the Physical Chemistry Division of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry is charged by the Union with the duty to define and maintain standards in the general field of thermodynamics. This duty encompasses matters such as the establishment and monitoring of international pressure and temperature scales, recommendations for calorimetric procedures, the selection and evaluation of reference standards for thermodynamic measurements of all types and the standardization of nomenclature and symbols in chemical thermodynamics. One particular aspect of the commission's work from among this set is carried forward by two subcommittees: one on thermodynamic data and the other on transport properties. These two subcommittees are responsible for the critical evaluation of experimental data for the properties of fluids that lie in their respective areas and for the subsequent preparation and dissemination of internationally approved thermodynamic tables of the fluid state and representations of transport properties.

The Subcommittee on Transport Properties has discharged its responsibilities through the work of groups of research workers active in the field drawn from all over the world. These groups have collaborated in the preparation of representations of the viscosity, thermal conductivity and diffusion coefficients of pure fluids and their mixtures over wide ranges of thermodynamic states. The representations have almost always been based upon an extensive body of experimental data for the property in question accumulated over many years by the efforts of laboratories worldwide.