Tese: Startup Flow of Gelled Crude Oils: an Experimental Study
Aluno(a) : Behbood AbediOrientador(a): Paulo R. de Souza Mendes
Área de Concentração: Petróleo e Energia
Data: 26/02/2016
Link para tese/dissertação: http://doi.org/10.17771/PUCRio.acad.28117
Resumo: Besides an increasing economic importance of producing wax-containing crude oil from ultra deep water resources, concerns about wax deposition and gelation play a significant role in this area. Gelled waxy crude oils often exhibit rheological behavior analogous to yield stress fluids. There is a critical or range of stresses, below which no flow occurs, but above which the viscosity of a gelled system decreases drastically. Thus, in order to restart flow of a gelled crude, a pressure larger than the typical operating pressure should be applied to exceed the yield stress of the fluid at wall, this required minimum pressure should be determined. In this study to explore the minimum pressure notion, yield stress fluids were investigated comprehensively. The investigation was initiated with simpler yield stress fluid and then advanced with thixotropic one using rheometer and designed experimental setup for fluid flow into tube. In both cases no slip condition was achieved, the behavior of yield stress fluids was screened in detail, the outcomes of fluid transport in tube and rheometric tests were combined and cross checked. Finally with putting all together, the required minimum pressure or in other words, the critical shear stress needed to startup the flow of yield stress fluids was discovered.