Journal of Science and Technology

3 (1), 2009, 127 - 139

©BEYKENT UNIVERSITY

PREDICTION OF VISCOSITIES OF
PETROLEUM FRACTIONS
Yavuz YORULMAZ*, Hasan USLU
Chemical Engineering Dept., Beykent University, Ayazağa,
İSTANBUL/TURKEY
E-mail: yavuzyorulmaz@beykent.edu.tr

Received: 23.10.2008 Accepted: 22.01.2009

ABSTRACT
The Viscosity-Gravity constant (VGC) can be more useful for predicting
viscosities of lubricating oil blends by combining the VGC with a term to
reflect the paraffinic or napthenic nature of the oils as compared to other
theoretical and semi-theoretical methods found in literature. In this work, the
combination of VGC and paraffin content of oil is used to predict viscosity at
100 oF (37.8 oC) and 210 oF (98.9 oC). The viscosities are among the
important properties standardized by the American Society for Testing
Materials (ASTM) and by the Institute of Petroleum (IP) for quality control of
finished lubricating oil products. The viscosities were found to have a strong
correlation with composition and VGC. Therefore, oil composition was
considered a correlating parameter. The equations were derived from
experimental data and no theoretically derived equations of similar nature were
found in the literature for comparison purposes.

For oils of the same viscosity, a low specific gravity (high API) indicates a
paraffinic oil while high specific gravity (low API) indicates a napthenic oil.
From the concept of viscosi-ty-gravity constant the higher VGC indicates a
more napthenic oil and, conversely the lower VGC indicates a more paraffinic
oil. Also a higher VGC suggets an oil will have a greater rate of viscosity
change with a change in temperature.
Keywords : Viscosity, VGC, API, Parafın, Napthene.

PETROL ÜRÜN (FRAKSİYON) LARININ

VİSKOZİTELERİNİN TAHMİNİ BULUNMASI
ÖZET
Viskoziteler, yağlama yağlarının kalitelerini belirleyen American Society for
Testing Materials (ASTM) ve Institute of Petroleum (IP) tarafından
standartlaştırılan önemli özelliklerin başlıcalarındandır. Viskozite-yoğunluk

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 Prediction Of Viscosities Of Petroleum Fractions

sabitesi parafinik veya naftanik içerikliğide belirten terim ile birleştirilip

kullanıldığında teorik ve yarı teorik yöntemlerden daha iyi netice vermektedir.
Bu çalışmada, VGC sabitesi ve yağın paraffin içerikliği birleştirilip 100 oF
(37,8 oC) ve 210 oF (98,9 oC) deki viskozitelerin tahmin edilmeden önce
bulunmasınada kullanılmıştır. Bulunan viskoziteler, içerik ile VGC arasında
kuvvetli bağlantı olduğunu göstermiştir. Bu nedenle yağ içeriğinin bağlantıyı
sağlayan önemli bir parametre olduğu bulunmuştur. Deneysel verilerden
viskozite verilerini verecek denklemler elde edilmiştir.Literatürde bu
denklemleri karşılaştırılacak denklemler bulunamamıştır.
Anahtar Kelimeler : Viskozite, VGC, API, Parafin, Naften

INTRODUCTION AND THEORY

The main objective of this work was to produce a correlation (s) for the
prediction of liquid petroleum fractions in compliance with the recent survey
by American Petroleum Institute (API). For petroleum fractions, useful
viscosity prediction methods are mostly based on parameters such as boiling
point and specific gravity which are commonly used to characterize each
fraction. Watson and his co-workers[1] presented figures relating kinematic
viscosity as a function of API gravity data and the Watson characterization
factor K. These figures were obtained by plotting the data collected and
drawing the best ave rage curves by cross-interpolation. Kinematic viscosity at
given temperature can be found from the values of API gravity and the Watson
characterization factor where they are defined as:

141 5
API = 1 4 1 5 - 1 3 1 5 (1)
SP

(2)

In Eqs. (1) an (2), API is the API gravitiy of the petroleum, SP is the specific
gravitiy of the petroleum at 60/60 F, Tb is the average boiling point of the
petroleum fraction in Rankine (R).

The API Technical Data Book nomograph has proven over the years and is
presently accepted as industry-wide standard for estimating viscosities of light
to moderately heavy oils. Abbott and co-workers have reduced the API
nomograph in equations[2]. In comparison, the Abbott correlations agree with
the Watson plots quite well except at the high viscosity levels The correlations
of Abbott and his co-workers can be judged sufficiently representative of the
API nomograph, they suffer from a serious shortcoming of singularity[3]. This
shortcoming reveals that the mathematical model of Abbot and his friends is
inadequate for significant extrapolations. Therefore, there is a need to develop
a correlation to represent accurately the Watson plots. They show that the

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 Yavuz YORULMAZ - Hasan USLU

logarithmic function of viscosity at the same boiling point temperature is a

linear function of API gravity and is extended as follows:

ln(v) = In (v'">) + ( AAPİ;_ A APi3,) • M v " 2 ' ) - 'n(v'">)] (3)

where v is kinematic viscosity in centistoke (cSt) and the superscripts (r1) and
(r2) refer to two reference fluids. This equation can be simplified based on the
definitions of the Watson characterization factor and API gravity as:

)(K_i°)
(rl] v ( r2 ) •
v= v (4)
v (rl)

The calculation of the viscosity of any petroleum fraction at a given boiling

point temperature and specific gravity may be carried out as follows. First one
evaluates v(r1), v(r2) and K. The properties of references are evaluated at the
same boiling point temperature and specific gravity by using proper
equations[4]. Several semi-theoretical viscosity prediction and correlation
methods are proposed in literature [5]. Baltatu[6] applied the corresponding
states method to predict the viscosity of petroleum fractions. The proposed
new semitheoretical method developed by Ozdogan and Yucel[7] employs
both the Enskog's hard sphere theory and the principle of corresponding states.
However correlations based on pure experimental data are always desired
since petroleum is a mixture of a large variety of hydrocarbons.

EXPERIMENTAL:

Viscosity reflects the fluidity of fliid is the most important single property of a
lubricating oil. Its determination is made with the viscometersi namely Saybolt
Universal Viscometer (short tube 1.225 cm long). The pirinciple of this type
viscometer is based on the time rewuired for a given volume of fluid (60 ml) to
flow through the outlet tube from an upper reservoir into a receiving flask is
reported as the saybolt apparatus the generally accepted temperatures are 100 F
(37.8 °C) and 210 F (98.9 °C).

In petroleum refining, specific gravity (SP) is always expressed in terms of an

arbitrary scale, degrees API (American Petroleum Institute) and as expressed
previously.

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

The viscosity-gravity constant (VGC) can be more useful for predicting the
viscosity of oil blends by combinig the VGC with a term to reflect the
paraffinic (straight chain hydrocarbons) or napthenic (ring shape

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 Prediction Of Viscosities Of Petroleum Fractions

hydrocarbons) nature of the oils as compared to earlier studies in literature. It

is an index of the chemical composition of the oil[8] and defined as follows:

=((10 • SP )-1.0752 log (v1 - 38))

V G C
(5)
(10 - log(v1-38))
((SP ) - 0.1244 log (v2 - 31))
VGC = (6)
(0.9255 - 0.0979 log (v2 - 31))- 0.0839

In Eqs. 5 and 6, v1 and v2 are the Saybolt Universal Viscosity measured at 100
F (37.8 °C) and 210 F (98.9 °C) respectively. SP is the specif gravity of the oil
measured at 60 F (15.6 °C). The higher the value of VCG the more napthenic
the oil is and conversely the lower the value, the more paraffinic, the higher
VCG and the higher rate of viscosity change which is called a new term, that is
Viscosity Index (VI), the rate of change of viscosity with temperature. Since
the aim of this work is to find an empirical relation suitable for predicting
viscosities of oils, a set of mixtures was made. One component was a
paraffinic oil and the other was napthenic. The mixtures were in one of five
viscosity classes: light, light-medium, medium, medium-heavy and heavy.
Binary mixtures of known composition were prepared for each viscosity class.
The general behaviour of the mixture viscosities (measured at 100 F and 210 F
were increasing with the increase of paraffinic oil fraction and viscosity (oil
grade) class as shown in Tables 1-5 and Figures 1 and 2.

Table 1: Results of Light Oil Blends

Composition Viscosity (SUS) Viscosity VGC at
API Color
(%paraffinic) at 100 F (SUS) 210 F
0 95.4 26.17 37.2 3.0 0.8594
10 97.2 27.29 37.9 2.5 0.8514
20 98.5 29.02 38.4 2.5 0.8406
30 99.0 30.00 38.5 L 2.5 0.8329
40 100.1 30.67 38.8 L 2.5 0.8282
50 102.0 30.20 39.0 2.0 0.8184
60 102.6 30.50 39.1 L 2.0 0.8063
70 103.2 30.70 39.2 L 2.0 0.7988
80 104.4 31.00 39.5 1.5 0.7937
90 106.8 31.20 39.6 L 1.5 0.7840
100 108.0 31.40 39.7 L 1.5 0.7776

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 Yavuz YORULMAZ - Hasan USLU

Table 2. Results of Light Medium Oil Blends

Composition Viscosity (SUS) Viscosity VGC at
API Color
(%paraffinic) at 100 F (SUS) 210 F
0 159 23.91 41.4 3.0 0.8672
10 169.2 25.03 42.1 2.5 0.8586
20 174 26.43 42.6 2.5 0.8461
30 179.4 27.84 43.5 L2.5 0.8370
40 182.4 28.13 44.5 2.0 0.8313
50 190.2 29.75 45.06 2.0 0.8223
60 192.6 31.23 45.72 L2.0 0.8125
70 195.6 32.08 46.2 L2.0 0.8058
80 202.2 33.37 47.04 1.5 0.7956
90 206.4 34.58 47.94 L1.5 0.7881
100 213.6 35.79 48.66 L1.5 0.7803

Table 3. Results of Medium Oil Blends

Composition Viscosity (SUS) Viscosity VGC at
API Color
(%paraffinic) at 100 F (SUS) 210 F
0 362 22.05 46.2 4.5 0.8700
10 371 23.06 47.4 4.5 0.8616
20 383 24.43 48.6 4.5 0.8545
30 389 25.29 49.8 L 4.5 0.8435
40 399 26.25 51.0 L 4.5 0.8398
50 413 27.40 52.8 L 4.5 0.8266
60 426 29.15 54.6 4.0 0.8186
70 436 29.75 55.5 4.0 0.8080
80 443 31.35 57.0 L.4.0 0.7976
90 460 32.09 58.2 L 4.0 0.7902
100 477 31.46 59.4 L 4.0 0.7793

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 Prediction Of Viscosities Of Petroleum Fractions

Table 4. Results of Heavy Medium Oil Blends

Composition Viscosity (SUS) API Viscosity Color VGC at
(%paraffinic) at 100 F (SUS) 210 F
0 720 19.59 58.68 5.5 0.8816
10 744 20.57 61.80 5.5 0.8728
20 756 22.22 64.80 L 5.5 0.8572
30 786 22.98 66.90 L 5.0 0.8518
40 810 24.20 67.2 5.0 0.8394
50 852 25.29 71.4 L 5.0 0.8316
60 900 26.90 76.2 4.5 0.8238
70 924 27.40 79.2 4.5 0.8133
80 954 29.26 82.2 L 4.5 0.8035
90 1002 29.75 85.2 4.0 0.7934
100 1032 31.46 90.6 4.0 0.7857

Table 5. Results of Heavy Oil Blends

Composition Viscosity (SUS) API Viscosity Color VGC at
(%paraffinic) at 100 F (SUS) 210 F
0 1824 17.68 83.9 L 5.5 0.8873
10 1872 19.03 86.8 L 5.5 0.8871
20 1932 19.43 91.2 L 5.5 0.8703
30 2046 21.06 100.2 L 5.5 0.8547
40 2100 21.47 103.8 5.0 0.8505
50 2226 22.22 114 5.0 0.8433
60 2352 23.57 126.6 5.0 0.8300
70 2376 24.77 127.8 5.0 0.8186
80 2412 26.16 129 5.0 0.8070
90 2526 27.39 138 5.0 0.7955
100 2634 28.21 144 5.0 0.7879

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 Yavuz YORULMAZ - Hasan USLU

1.0 6» (HI cr DC 05 0 * M Ç.J Ol oo

Mophlhfithj COiTipctJfJpn
Figure 1. Universal Viscosity at (100 °F) vs. Composition of the blends. A, light blend
; • , Light medium blend; • , Medium blend; • , Heavy medium blend; o, Heavy blend.

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 Prediction Of Viscosities Of Petroleum Fractions

Figure 2. Universal viscosity at 210 °F Composition of the blends. A, light blend ; • ,

Light medium blend; • , Medium blend; • , Heavy medium blend; o, Heavy blend.

Also in Figures 3 and 4 , the relationship between viscosity versus V G C and

composition parameter can be clearly seen.

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 Yavuz YORULMAZ - Hasan USLU

vec
Figure 3. Relationship between Viscosity at 100 °F and VGC. A, light blend; • , Light
medium blend; • , Medium blend; • , Heavy medium blend; o, Heavy blend.

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 Prediction Of Viscosities Of Petroleum Fractions

ÏOO

0.75 077 0.79 OS 0.83 085 0 87 0.89 0.91

VG C

Figure 4. Relationship between Viscosity at 210 °F and VGCA, light blend ; • , Light
medium blend; • , Medium blend; • , Heavy medium blend; o, Heavy blend.

The graphical inspections indicated that they could be plotted on logarithmic

coordinates, or conformed to the general formula:
Log (viscosity) = m* log (VGC) + m (composition ) + n (7)

where m* is the average slope of lines from the viscosity versus VGC on the
logarithmic coordinates as seen in Figures 5 and 6. m and n are the slopes and
intercepts of lines found by plotting the intercepts versus composition on the
semilogarithmic coordinates.

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 Yavuz YORULMAZ - Hasan USLU

IP * n o

A. J_ _L
•'O
(Lit uT V G C ] i IcT*
Figure 5. Logarithmic relationship between viscosity at 210 °F and VGC. A, light blend
; • , Light medium blend; • , Medium blend; • , Heavy medium blend; o, Heavy blend.

137
 Prediction Of Viscosities Of Petroleum Fractions

-12 -t) -10 -9 -0 - 7 -6 -5 - 4

{Log of VGC) X l O - 2
Figure 6. Logarithmic relationship between viscosity at 100 °F and VGC. A, Light
blend ; • , Light medium blend; • , Medium blend; • , Heavy medium blend; o, Heavy
blend.

Their values are shown as below and the equations derived were based on
experimental results:

For viscosity at 100 F m* = 161.0 m = 8.0 n = 11.95

For viscosity at 210 F m* = 72.0 m = 3.714 n = 5.895

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 Yavuz YORULMAZ - Hasan USLU

v100 = 8.9569 x 1011 • (VGC)161 • e

18.42 c
(8)
5 72 8
8.5518 c
v210 = 7.8654 x 10 • (VGC) •e' (9)

In order to verify the derived correlations other experimental values were used
in these equations and very small (less than ± 10%) errors were produced.

CONCLUSION:
The viscosities were found to have strong correlation with composition and
VGC and can be predicted from the derived equations. The equations mainly
contain three products, a constant term, some power of Viscosity-Gravity-
Constant and composition term. The exponential composition term in the
derived equations underlines the importance of VGC. So far in the literature
VGC was reported to be a measure of the paraffinic or napthenic character of
an oil Yet it was based originally on pure hydrocarbons, and has not been
completely successful for indicating chemical composition of commercial
blends. Therefore, oil composition was considered a separate correlating
parameter in this work. The importance of VGC in arriving the re sults
obtained in this study is in well agreement with earlier works [9] as lube oil
properties correlated in Hydrocarbon Refining Developments.
REFERENCES:
[1] Watson, W.A.; Nelson, E.F.; Murphy, G.B. Characterization of Petroleum Fractions
Ind.Eng. Chem., 1935, 27, 1460-1464.
[2] Abbott, M.M; Kaufman, T.G.; Domash, L. A Correlation for Predicting Liquid
Viscosities of Petroleum Fractions. Can. J. Chem Eng., 1971, 49, 379.
[3] Twu, C.H. Internally Consistent Correlation for Predicting Liquid Viscosities of
Petroleum Fractions, Ind. Eng.Chem.Process Design Development, 1985, 24, 1287.
[4] Twu, C.,H. Generalized Method for Predicting Viscosities of Petroleum Fractions',
1986, 32, 2091-2094.
[5] API Technical Data Book, Petroleum Refinery, New York, American Petroleum
Institute, 1980.
[6] Baltatu, M.E. Winter National Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., 1984.
[7] Ozdogan, S.; Yucel, H.G. 'Correlations towards Prediction of Petroleum Fraction
Visccosities: a semi-theoretical Approach', 1999, 79, 1209-1214
[8] Kayam, C., Characterization of Different Base Binary Oil Mixtures, M.S. Thesis,
METU, 1976.
[9] Kayam, C.; Yorulmaz, Y. Lube Oil Properties Correlated, Refining Developments
Hydrocarbon Processing, 1977, 141.

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