An experimental investigation of deposition from wax-solvent mixtures under turbulent flow with heat transfer
Date
2007
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Abstract
A flow-loop apparatus, incorporating a co-current double-pipe heat exchanger, was developed for investigating the deposition of solids from multi-component solutions of a wax and a paraffinic solvent under turbulent flow. The deposition experiments were performed at Reynolds numbers from 10000 to 31000 with 7, 10 and 15 mass% waxsolvent mixtures at different hot and cold stream temperatures. In all experiments, the deposit was formed rapidly, with thermal steady-state attained within 20-30 min. The deposit mass decreased with an increase in the Reynolds number, the wax-solvent mixture temperature, and the coolant temperature. The data were analyzed with a steadystate heat-transfer model, which confirmed the deposit mass to depend on the relative magnitudes of the thermal resistances in series as well as the fractional temperature drop across the deposit-layer. The estimated liquid-deposit interface temperature was shown to be the wax appearance temperature (WAT) of each wax-solvent mixture within experimental error limits. The average thermal conductivity of the deposits was estimated to be 0.35 W m-1 K-1• The GC analysis of deposit samples showed their wax content and carbon number distribution to vary with the deposition time and Reynolds number. Overall, the results of this study, together with results obtained previously under laminar flow, confirm that the deposition process from 'waxy' mixtures is primarily thermally-driven under both laminar and turbulent flow regimes.
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Bibliography: p. 121-130
Some pages are in colour.
Some pages are in colour.
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Fong, N. (2007). An experimental investigation of deposition from wax-solvent mixtures under turbulent flow with heat transfer (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/1008