(566a) Wax Deposition in Subsea Oil Transportation Pipelines

The gelation and deposition of waxy crude oils in subsea oil pipelines pose great threats to the safety and efficiency of their transportation. In this poster, we compile and present findings from several recent investigations regarding the gelation and deposition of waxy crude oils. We first conducted a comprehensive investigation of the rheological responses of the gelled waxy crude oils by both stress-controlled and strain-controlled tests and established a comprehensive description of the yielding scenario for waxy crude oils. We also established a numerical model to simulate the deposition rate under various conditions and used this model to elucidate the effects of two important operating conditions, namely temperature and flow rate, on wax deposition. In a recent investigation, we found that the viscosity of waxy crude oils can be reduced by more than 80% after exposed to DC electric field with only 1% of the energy assumption of conventional methods. These findings help improve the understanding of wax deposition mechniams and provide guidance for field operations.

Skills:

1. Experimental Skills: Rheology, Materials characterization

2. Modeling Skills: Process modeling and simulation, Transport simulation, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) Simulation, Molecular Dynamics (MD) Simulation

3. Programming Skills: C, C++, Fortran, Phython