The effect of micro/nano-particles on pressure drop in Oil pipeline: Simulation

Abstract

A high pressure drop happens when heavy oil with high viscosity moves through the oil pipeline. A variety of methods to avoid this pressure drop is available. One of which is injection of chemicals to reduce the viscosity and ultimately reduce pressure drop. Using the Pipesim software, the effect of dispersion of nano and microparticles into the oil has been simulated to study the amount of the pressure drop pipelines. The effects of the parameters such as the type and concentration of particles, temperature, oil rate, inside diameter of pipe and the flow type were examined. Simulating the experimental data by the software, gives promising experimental results. The results show that the copper micro-particles with 0.1 wt% concentrations have the lowest pressure drop per unit length. At low temperatures the effect of concentration of micro particle is important and at high temperatures effects of temperature is dominant. It is noteworthy that in higher rates, the presence of any amount of particles has a favorable impact on the pressure drop. For laminar and turbulent flow, pressure drop will decrease when the oil viscosity decreases. On the contrary for transient flow, pressure drop will increase when the viscosity reduces.