OIL COMPONENT COMPOSITION INFLUENCE ON THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF FORMED ORGANIC DEPOSITS

Abstract

The relevance of the research is caused by the need to increase the accuracy of modelling heat and mass transfer and formation of organic deposits in oil wells and linear oil pipelines. Many models of the formation of organic deposits omit the influence of their thermal conductivity coefficient on convective heat and mass transfer in a heterogeneous medium, but consideration of this parameter can significantly affect the result, increasing thermal resistance of the pipeline. Heat and mass transfer in the volume of hydrocarbons is a complex process, which is considered as convective heat transfer, which takes into account the matter molecular diffusion. This paper considers the diffusion mechanisms of heat transfer in organic deposits but neglects the diffusion of matter. The formation of these deposits is one of the most serious complications in the production of hydrocarbons in various hydrocarbon fields around the world, in particular in the Perm Krai. The aim of the research is to assess the degree of influence of the component composition of the fluid and its viscosity on thermal conductivity of organic deposits of a given fluid; to determine the possibility of assessing the thermal conductivity coefficient of organic deposits without conducting additional laboratory studies. Methods: laboratory research on the «WaxFlowLoop» installation, determination of the component composition of the fluid by gas chromatography. Results. To characterize the component composition of the fluid, the ratio of low molecular weight ( ) components to high molecular weight ( ) was taken. According to the results of the studies, it was found that the thermal conductivity of organic deposits grows with the increase in the proportion of low molecular weight hydrocarbons in the composition of the studied fluid. The presence of a correlation between the dynamic viscosity of the fluid and the value of the thermal conductivity of organic deposits, which decreases with an increase in the viscosity of the fluid, was also determined. Conclusion. The obtained experimental results allow us to conclude that it is possible to predict the value of thermal conductivity of organic deposits by the properties of the initial fluid. The use of the wax deposition thermal conductivity value when modeling its formation, as well as the obtained correlations, will make it possible to achieve significant progress in modeling heat transfer between the fluid and the wall and the formation of organic deposits in oil wells and underground oil pipelines.

Keywords

• thermal conductivity
• organic deposits
• modeling
• oil well
• laboratory research