Flow Rate Effect on Wax Deposition Behavior in Single-Phase Laminar Flow

Abstract

Wax deposition is an extremely common occurrence affecting flow assurance in oil fields. Under the laminar flow condition, the effect of the flow rate on wax deposition is still unclear. In this study, a flow loop test was conducted by considering the depletion effect to investigate the flow effect on wax deposition in single-phase laminar flow. The measured data were compared with the estimated data using models (wax deposition, hydrodynamic, and heat transfer models). The data obtained from the models were matched with the measured data; thus, thereby model parameters were tuned and the wax deposit thickness along the pipeline was estimated with respect to flow rate. The study results indicate that the wax deposit thickness decreases when the flow rate increases at the thickest spot (TS). The volume of wax deposits increases when the flow rate increases. An increase in the flow rate increases the distance between the inlet and the location of the TS.