Effect of ultrasonic oscillations on the fluidity of heavy oil products at low temperatures

Abstract

We develop a laboratory setup to estimate the force of rotation of a metal branch pipe in a viscoelastic medium. We show that 2-min action of shearing ultrasonic oscillations (frequency, 32.5 kHz; specific power, no more than 0.008 W/cm2) reduces by 17% the static limit of fluidity brought to an initial temperature of I-100 fuel oil cooled to −15°C in the wall layer of a rotating branch pipe. We obtain a linear regression dependence between the ratio of the threshold force of the onset of branch pipe motion to the consumption current of the ultrasonic transducer and the fuel temperature.