Petroleum Science and Technology

ISSN: 1091-6466 (Print) 1532-2459 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/lpet20

An emperical correlation for estimating the

viscosity of non-Newtonian waxy crude oils
Shivanjali Sharma, Vikas Mahto, Virender Parkash Sharma & Amit Saxena
To cite this article: Shivanjali Sharma, Vikas Mahto, Virender Parkash Sharma & Amit Saxena
(2016) An emperical correlation for estimating the viscosity of non-Newtonian waxy crude oils,
Petroleum Science and Technology, 34:6, 523-530, DOI: 10.1080/10916466.2016.1153653
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10916466.2016.1153653

Published online: 28 Apr 2016.

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Date: 28 April 2016, At: 21:27

PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

, VOL. , NO. ,
http://dx.doi.org/./..

An emperical correlation for estimating the viscosity

of non-Newtonian waxy crude oils
Shivanjali Sharmaa , Vikas Mahtob , Virender Parkash Sharmab and Amit Saxenac

Downloaded by [106.67.127.148] at 21:27 28 April 2016

a
Department of Petroleum Engineering, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, RaeBareli, India; b Department
of Petroleum Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, India; c Department of Petroleum Engineering, Graphic Era
University, Dehradun, India

ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS

Non-Newtonian fluids are the most complex ones when it comes to predicting
their flow behavior. In the pre-existing models, rheological behavior in waxy
crude oils is mainly affected by shear rate and thermal history of crude oils. In
the present work, rheological characteristics of four different crude oils were
studied by coaxial cylindrical rheometer at three different temperatures (40C,
50C, and 60C) and a model was proposed keeping into consideration wax
content for the first time. This model is prepared to predict the viscosity of four
different crude oils with different wax content and at different temperature.
The proposed model can efficiently estimate the viscosity as compared to other
established models.

Rheology; waxy crude oil;

viscosity; model; wax content

1. Introduction
Crude oil is a mixture of light and heavy hydrocarbon. Crude oils are Newtonian under down-hole conditions (i.e., high temperature and high pressure), but on reaching the surface the flow becomes nonNewtonian. Flow through pipelines is much more complex. As the temperature of crude oil decreases,
heavy components like wax and asphaltenes get deposited on the walls of the pipeline. Wax is a commonly found component of crude oil. It is generally defined as large n-paraffins which are isolated at
low temperatures but is soluble in crude oil when the temperature is elevated (Sharma et al., 2012, 2013,
2014). Crude oils containing large amount of wax are called waxy crude oils (Dimitriou et al., 2011).
There are many problems caused by wax deposition like nature of flow changes from Newtonian to
non-Newtonian, there are a reduction in flow, increase in energy consumption, and failures in production (Zong, 2006). Measurement of rheological properties of crude oil is of high importance both
for pipeline and pump station design. As the composition of crude oil obtained from different origins is different, it necessitates the importance of measurement of rheological properties (Malkin and
Isayev, 2006). Crude oil containing wax requires a certain amount of pressure known as yield stress
to start the flow (Borthakur et al., 1996). Waxy crude oils and there rheology is highly dependent on
the temperature. At low temperature wax separates out and at high temperature, it becomes soluble in
crude oil. The rheology of waxy crudes is influenced by wax as well as by thermal history of the crude
(Li, 2003).
Fluids rheological behavior is classified in accordance with the relation between shear stress and
shear rate. This is obtained by curve fitting obtained from experimental viscometric data. If this relationship is linear then the fluid is known as Newtonian fluid and if the relation is nonlinear, then
CONTACT Shivanjali Sharma
shivanjali@gmail.com
Department of Petroleum Engineering, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of
Petroleum Technology, RaeBareli, , Uttar Pradesh, India.
Color versions of one or more of the gures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/lpet.
Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

524

S. SHARMA ET AL.

Table . Physiochemical characterization of crude oil samples.

S. no.
)
)
)
)
)

Parameter

Unit

Method

Density
gm/mL @ C IP /
API gravity
API
ASTM table
Water content
% (v/v)
IP /
Pour point
C
IP /
Redwood viscosity
sec
IP /

Sample
Sample
Sample
Sample
Observed values Observed values Observed values Observed values
.
.
.

.
.

.
.

.
.

the relation is considered non-Newtonian (Livescu, 2012). Many models have been proposed up to
now to describe the rheological behavior of crude oil such as Power law model and the Casson model
(Al-Zahrani, 1997; Taiwol et al., 2012). In this work, a model have been proposed which matches best
with the experimental data for Indian waxy crude oil sample. Also, it has been compared with Power law
model.

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2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
Four crude oil samples were procured from western oil fields of Indian company Oil and Natural Gas
Corporation. Basic characterization of crude oil sample is given in Table 1. All the samples were first
heated up to 70C to make the wax completely soluble in crude oil.
2.2. Rheological studies
Rheological studies of crude oil were carried out by using an MC-1 Rheometer at various temperatures.
It is a rotational viscometer based on the Searle principle and has the temperature regulator ranging
from 40C to 180C which controls temperature using water or oil as the heat transfer medium and is
controlled using Physica US 200 software such that measurements are performed under controlled shear
stress or controlled shear rate.
2.3. Wax content
Two grams of crude oil was dissolved in n-pentane (40 mL) and stirred. After that, acetone was
added in a ratio of 3:1 (120 mL) and the mixture was cooled down for 253 K for 24 h. Solid part
was separated using Whatman filter (N 934). This solid part is redissolved in n-hexane to remove
asphaltenes. After solvent removal, final product is weighed. Wax content of each sample is given in
Table 2.

3. Rheological behavior and modeling analysis

Rheology is the science of the deformation of matter. It involves the study of the change in form and flow
of matter in term of elasticity, viscosity and plasticity under applied stresses or strains. The rheological
Table . Wax content of crude oil sample.
Crude oil

WAX content, %

Sample
Sample
Sample
Sample

.
.

PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

525

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(a)

(b)

(c)
Figure . (a) Viscosity VS. shear rate curve for sample no. at C. (b) Viscosity v/s shear rate curve for sample no. at C. (c) Viscosity
v/s shear rate curve for sample no. at C.

behavior of waxy oil is crucial in the design of pipeline, flow handling equipment, and processing purposes in the oil industry. The study of the rheological characteristics of crude oil is significant to lower
the energy consumption and ensuring safety and cost effectiveness in the pipeline transportation of waxy
crudes. The most commonly used models for prediction of viscosity in crude oils are the Power law and
Casson model.
3.1. Power law model

= K n
Where K and n are power law model constants. Constant K is a measure of the consistency of the fluid.
The higher the K is, the more viscous the fluid is. n is a measure of the degree of non-Newtonian behavior:
the greater the departure is, the more pronounced the non-Newtonian properties of the fluid is.
= K n1
where is non- Newtonian apparent viscosity. The disadvantage with power law is that it is not able to
describe the viscosity at higher shear rate region (Banerjee et al., 2015).

526

S. SHARMA ET AL.

Table . A comparative study of the experimental, existing model and newly developed model for the estimation of the viscosity for
sample number .
Sample no.
Experimental

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Shear rate, /sec

Power law

New model

Shear stress, Pa

, cP

Temp,C

Wax content

, cP

, cP

Error, %

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3.2. Casson model

This model was introduced by Casson. This model is based on a structure model of the interactive behavior of solid and liquid phases of a two phase suspension (Banerjee et al., 2015).
1/2 = o + 1/2
Where o is yield shear stress, is a Casson viscosity, and is shear rate.
3.3. New model
Precipitation of wax significantly increases the crude viscosity which changes the flow properties of the
crude from Newtonian to non-Newtonian behavior. On further cooling, more and more wax crystals
separates out and interlock to form a wax crystal lattice. Considering the fact that wax has pronounced
effect on the rheology of crude oil, effect of wax concentration was included in the new model. In the
similar manner, temperature has a strong effect on both viscosity and viscous behavior. The effect of
temperature provides the flow behavior curve in terms of the viscosity-shear rate or viscosity-shear stress
relationships. The apparent viscosity decreases considerably with increasing temperature (Li, 2003). The
previous model was not able to describe the behavior of waxy crude oil (Borthakur et al., 1996). The
main reason behind this was effect of wax concentration and shear rate was not taken into account. In
the new model, a new equation has been developed taking into account both of these factors.

PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

527

Table . A comparative study of the experimental, existing model and newly developed model for the estimation of the viscosity for
sample number .
Sample no.
Experimental

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Shear rate, /sec

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Power law

New model

Shear stress, Pa

, cP

Temp,C

Wax content

, cP

, cP

Error, %

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The wax content of different crude oil varies with the change of the oil field. There is a need to incorporate a correction factor in the existing rheological equations which takes into account the variation
caused by the presence of wax. From the literature is evident that as the temperature of the system is
increased the wax crystals dissolves and increases the flow capability of the system (Al-Zahrani, 1997).
As for our system, the Power law model was found to be more near to our experimental data, and a
correction factor is incorporated into the Power law model which refines the model and a better predictability of the experimental result is obtained. Also, the temperature dependence of shear stress can
be well explained by Arrhenius type of equation (i.e., there is a linear relationship between the logarithm
of the viscosity and the inverse temperature) (Zhongchang and Wuhua, 2006). From the experimental
results it observed that
a

we T .
When this parameter was incorporated in the Power law model fascinating results were obtained.
After incorporation of this correction factor the equation becomes
a

= n we T

where a can be easily calculated if we know the wax content and temperature of crude oil.

528

S. SHARMA ET AL.

Table . A comparative study of the experimental, existing model and newly developed model for the estimation of the viscosity for
sample number .
Sample no.
Experimental

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Power Law

New Model

Shear stress, Pa

, cP

Temp,C

Wax content

, cP

, cP

Error, %

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Also, w is wax content (%), T is temperature (C), is shear rate (1/s), is shear stress (Pa), a is
correction factor (C), and is viscosity (cP).


T
( n ) w
log 1 log 2
n=
log 1 log 2
a
Log = log + logw n log
T


a = ln

4. Results and discussions

Table 1 gives the physiochemical characterization of all four crude oil samples. It shows that all crude
oils are heavy in nature which was further proved from Table 2 where the wax content of all crude oil
sample is very high. Rheograms of all four samples have been obtained at 40C, 50C and 60C. The
representative plots for viscosity v/s shear rate curve of different crude oil samples are shown in Figures
1ac. The following figures elucidates a comparative study between the experimental data, model data
(model available in literature) and a newly developed model. Data points from the new model clearly
overlaps experimental data which proves that values from new model are close to experimental results

PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

529

Table . A comparative study of the experimental, existing model and newly developed model for the estimation of the viscosity for
sample number .
Sample no.
Experimental

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Shear rate, /sec

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Power law

New model

Shear stress, Pa

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Temp,C

Wax content

, cP

, cP

Error, %

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as compared to power law. Subsequently the elaborative comparative results are depiceted in the Tables 3
6.
It can be easily observed from Figures 1ac and Tables 36 that the results obtained from the new
model can predict the experimental results more appropriately as compared to the power law model.
The more accurate prediction of viscosity is attributed to the incorporation of the effect of wax content
present in the crude oil obtained from different fields. Also Figure 2 validates the newly developed using

Figure . Model validation curve.

530

S. SHARMA ET AL.

experimental data with a regression coefficient R2 to be 0.99. This implies that the predicted data points
are in confluence with the experimental study. Also the absolute average deviation of data points is found
to be around 5%.

5. Conclusions
The proposed model efficiently predicted the viscosity of tested crude oils obtained from different oil
fields. It incorporates the most important factor of wax concentration, which governs the viscosity of the
crude oil. It has not been taken into the account frequently while predicting the viscosity of the crude
oil. Therefore, this model can be used while designing pipelines for Indian waxy crude oils.

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