A parametric study of the hydrodynamic roughness produced by a wall coating layer of heavy oil

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• 作者：S. Rushd ; R. S. Sanders
• 关键词：Pipeline transportation ; Heavy oil ; Wall fouling ; Lubricated pipe flow ; CFD simulation
• 刊名：Petroleum Science
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：14
• 期：1
• 页码：155-166
• 全文大小：1822KB
• 刊物主题：Mineral Resources; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Industrial and Production Engineering; Energy Economics;
• 出版者：China University of Petroleum (Beijing)
• ISSN：1995-8226
• 卷排序：14

文摘

In water-lubricated pipeline transportation of heavy oil and bitumen, a thin oil film typically coats the pipe wall. A detailed study of the hydrodynamic effects of this fouling layer is critical to the design and operation of oil–water pipelines, as it can increase the pipeline pressure loss (and pumping power requirements) by 15 times or more. In this study, a parametric investigation of the hydrodynamic effects caused by the wall coating of viscous oil was conducted. A custom-built rectangular flow cell was used. A validated CFD-based procedure was used to determine the hydrodynamic roughness from the measured pressure losses. A similar procedure was followed for a set of pipe loop tests. The effects of the thickness of the oil coating layer, the oil viscosity, and water flow rate on the hydrodynamic roughness were evaluated. Oil viscosities from 3 to 21300 Pa s were tested. The results show that the equivalent hydrodynamic roughness produced by a wall coating layer of viscous oil is dependent on the coating thickness but essentially independent of oil viscosity. A new correlation was developed using these data to predict the hydrodynamic roughness for flow conditions in which a viscous oil coating is produced on the pipe wall.