Modeling of asphaltene particle deposition from turbulent oil flow in tubing: Model validation and a parametric study

The deposition of asphaltenes on the inner wall of oil wells and pipelines causes flow blockage and significant production loss in these conduits. The major underlying mechanism(s) for the deposition of asphaltene particles from the oil stream are still under investigation as an active research topic in the literature. In this work, a new deposition model considering both diffusional and inertial transport of asphaltene toward the tubing surface was developed. Model predictions were compared and verified with two sound experimental data available in the literature to evaluate the model's performance. A parametric study was done using the validated model in order to investigate the effect of the asphaltene particle size, flow velocity and oil viscosity on the magnitude of asphaltene deposition rate. Results of the study revealed that increasing the oil velocity causes more drag force on wall's inner surface; consequently, particles tend to transport away from the surface and the rate of asphaltene deposition is decreased. In addition, the developed model predicts that at low fluid velocity (∼0.7 m/s), the less viscous oil is more prone to asphaltene deposition problem.