Heavy Crude Pipeline Hydraulic Design under normal operating temperature ranges: heavy crude don't flow easily due to high viscosity and high pour point.
normal operating temperatures are usually below the pour points
Transportation of high pour point crude:

blending with diluent to keep behavior newtonian

heating the crude

mixing with hot water

processing the crude before pipelining to remove wax and bring down the pour point and viscosity

injecting paraffin inhibitors they prevent paraffin deposition and wax crystallization

heating both crude and pipeline

it is necessary to carry out a thorough analysis of the crude and temperature behavior before choosing a certain method
Important Parameters when dealing with Heavy crude:

density/SG

wax content

Shear stress vs. Shear rate

Yield stress

Bulk modulus

heat capacity

more pressure is needed because when pour point is high, more pressure is needed for non newtonian fluids. no problems occur is the fluid is kept in motion however:
if shut down --> gelled state will require substantially more pressure to put into motion
additional restart pressure is higher than that for a crude that operates above pour point, this is provided by a pump that initiates flow

Design considerations for heavy crude pipelines with thermal effects:

temperature behavior of the environment and its effect on the physical properties of the fluid

the temperature effects on shutdown and restart

Problems with Heavy crude design:

pressure and temperature profile calculations

pipeline sizing

maximum throughput determination

pump and heater station spacing

heat retention for a certain period of time

EQUATIONS FOR TEMPERATURE (LECTURE 3D, SLIDE 11)

	Criado por Yasmina Moussa mais de 8 anos atrás

Normal-level (N-level) Transmission and Storage Notas sobre Liquid Pipeline Design D, criado por Yasmina Moussa em 27-10-2015.