Study on heat transfer of waxy crude oil melting phase change based on a novel model

Abstract

The study of phase change heat transfer of crude oil melting is important for pre-heating and restarting of pipelines. Combining the characteristics of waxy crude oil characteristics of waxy crude oil melting, a novel mathematical model was established, which can accurately describe the non-linear release of latent heat, liquid-solid interface changes, natural convection, and other key heat transfer problems. In the process of heating and melting, the variation law of the solid-phase interface position in the pipe at different initial solidification states was analyzed. The results showed that in the partially solidified pipeline, the liquid crude oil in the pipeline has a higher temperature at the initial heating stage, and continuously loses heat to the low temperature crude oil, resulting in a decline in the liquid-phase ratio at the initial stage. Because crude oil was affected by different degrees of radial thermal resistance, latent heat release and porous medium characteristics at different positions of the pipeline, the temperature drop curves of the crude oil varies greatly.