Study of pressure and temperature developing profiles in crude oil pipe flows

Pressure and temperature developing profiles for crude oil transportation pipelines are simulated under a diversity of external boundary conditions. MOLCV is used in this research to convert a system of partial differential equations into a system of ordinary first order differential equations in cylindrical coordinates. Momentum and energy balance equations are coupled in crude oil flows because of thermal–physical property variations. Simulation solutions show the effect of boundary conditions in the pressure drop profile, which provide potential model predictive applications to account for weather forecast in crude oil transportation operations.

► Pressure and temperature developing profiles for crude oil pipelines are simulated. ► Effect of external boundary conditions and viscosity correlations are demonstrated. ► Method of lines effectively handles viscosity and boundary condition variations. ► Application models the effect of weather changes in heavy oil transportation.