Resumo

by Letícia Bizarre, Ivanei F. Pinheiro, Charlie van der Geest, Vanessa C. B. Guersoni, Aline Melchuna, presented at SPE FATC 2022, November 2022.

Abstract

One of the main challenges regarding crude oil production under low temperatures in deep seas concerns
the wax deposition in pipelines. This issue presents a high level of complexity and the governing mechanism
is still under investigation. Considering the deposition phenomenon and seeking to improve the knowledge
about the governing mechanism and the main variables influencing the final behavior, the present work
analyzes how different oil compositions and mixtures, under different flow conditions, impact the deposit wax
thickness. It also compares the dimensionless temperature for different wax concentrations, which allows to
evaluate the behavior of the temperature gradient, and verifies the behavior of the plateau under different
Reynolds numbers. Finally, the mechanism proposed in this work is compared with the behavior proposed by
the main governance mechanisms discussed in the literature in the last decades.

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