7/31/14 Transient Cooling of Waxy Crude Oil in a Floating Roof Tank

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JournalofAppliedMathematics
Volume2014(2014),ArticleID482026,12pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/482026
ResearchArticle
TransientCoolingofWaxyCrudeOilinaFloatingRoofTank
JianZhao,YangLiu,LiXinWei,andHangDong
KeyLaboratoryofEnhancedOilandGasRecoveryofEducationalMinistry,NortheastPetroleumUniversity,No.
199FazhanRoad,SoudertonArea,DaqingCity163318,China
Received4March2014;Accepted25April2014;Published5June2014
AcademicEditor:JamesRobertBuchanan
Copyright 2014 Jian Zhao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricteduse,distribution,andreproductioninanymedium,providedtheoriginalworkisproperlycited.
Abstract
The transient cooling of waxy crude oil stored in a floating roof tank located in alpine region is studied by means of numerical simulation,
accomplishedwithatwo-dimensionalmodelincylindricalcoordinateswiththefinitevolumesmethod.Thetypicalevolutionoftransientnatural
convectionandtemperaturedistributionisinvestigatedwhichcanbedividedintofourstages.Forthetransientnaturalconvection,itisconcluded
as the formation, expansion, degradation, and vanishing stage, along with itis the evolution of temperature field regarded as the local cooling,
integral cooling, the thermal stratification, and heat conduction course. Special attention is given to the solidified process of waxy oil and its
influenceonthecoolingprocessofcrudeoil.Moreover,theeffectoftanksize,thetemperaturegradientbetweenoilandambient,viscosity,andCp
of waxy crudeoil on the cooling rate isinvestigated. The main characteristic ofcooling process obtained from numerical resultsshows a good
agreementwiththetemperaturetestresultsfromalargefloatingtankintheoildepot.
1.Introduction
Safetystorageofwaxycrudeoilisofconcernincoldregionwhereambienttemperaturemaybemuchlowerthanthepourpointofstoredoil.Due
to the high wax content, the rheological behavior of crude oil is rather complex and the pour point is high in general, together with the low
ambienttemperature,leadingtheprobabilityofoilsolidifyingbemuchgreaterthangeneralcondition.Thesolidifyingofcrudeoilduringstorage
can bea seriousaccident whichhinders thesubsequent transportation.In order toavoid thisaccident, thestudy oftransient coolingprocess of
waxy crude oil in a tank, including the long-term behavior of fluid and heat exchange mechanism with the surroundings, is crucial to the
predictionofcoolingrateandscheduleformulationfortransportationandstorage.
Onlya fewstudies havebeenfocused onthe transientcoolingprocess ofoil storedina tankin acoldenvironment. Bussonand Miniscloux[1]
developedasimplemodeltopredictthesteadystateheatlossesfromafueloiltankbasedontheassumptionofawell-mixedcoreoffluid.Kumana
andKathari[2]proposedempiricalcorrelations forheattransfercoefficientsofthetank andpublishedamodeltopredictthe coolingrateofoil.
Basedonthenumericalmethod,Venartetal.[3]solvedthegoverningnaturalconvectionequationstoinvestigatethesteadystateheatlossesfroma
fuel oiltank with aconstant viscosityfluid assumption. Cotterand Charles successivelypresented threepapers [46]; they solvedthe governing
mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations numerically in stream function vorticity form by employing a control volume finite
differencemethod.Thus, theflowpatternandtemperature distributionoftransientcooling bynaturalconvectionwerediscussed. Afterthat,the
effect of heat transfercoefficient, aspect ratio, and temperature dependent viscosityon the fluid flow and heat transferwas examined. Finally, a
simplifiedheatlossmodelwasgiven.AlthoughCottersresearchgaveabeneficialinvestigationonthissubject,theobjectofhisresearchisdome
roof tank. The heat loss rate at the sidewall is largest. Thus, the flow pattern and temperature distribution are significantly affected by the heat
transferatsidewall.However, nowadays,benefitingfromthetechnicaland economicadvantages,thefloatingrooftank hasbecomethepreferred
facilitytostoreoilinlargecrudeoildepot.Mostquantityofheathasbeenlostthroughthetankroofwhichisconstitutedbydouble-decksteelplate
thatclingstothesurfaceofoilduetothepoorthermalinsulation.Instead,thesidewallhasbecometheminorlocationforheatlossattributingto
the insulation. The mode of natural convection and heat transfer induced by this specific is much different from that in the dome roof tank.
Besides, in Cotters papers, their study focused on the early stages of cooling; however, as the cooling process develops, the flow structure and
temperature distributionvary significantlyfor thedeteriorative rheologicalbehavior ofwaxy crudeoil. DeCsaro Oliveskiet al.[7] presented a
numericalandexperimentalanalysisofthethermalstratificationandnaturalconvectiveregimeinsideasmalltankcontainingthermaloil.Intheir
research, the sidewall was still taken as the primary heat loss position; the top and bottom were considered as perfectly insulated which gave a
Abstract
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7/31/14 Transient Cooling of Waxy Crude Oil in a Floating Roof Tank
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similar conclusion asCotters research. In addition,all the properties of crudeoil were assumed constant.But in fact, thevariable viscosity can
significantlyaffectthenaturalconvectionofoil.Zhao[8]studiedthetemperaturechangingruleofcrudeoilbynumericalsimulation.Meanwhile,
thedifferenceamongwaveletfiniteelementmethod,traditionalfiniteelementmethod,andactualmeasurementwasalsoexamined.Buttheeffect
ofnaturalconvectionwhichcanbeagreatfactortotheheattransferwasnotpresentedinhisresearch.Andthepropertiesofoilwerestilltakenas
constant.Basedonamodifiedk-emodel,Vardar[9]analyzedthefillingprocessofafueloilstoragetankcontainingahighertemperaturefueloil
numerically;thestreamlines,theisotherms,andthetransientaveragetemperaturevariationswerepresented.Butthecoolingprocessinhisresearch
ismuchdifferentfromthestaticstorageprocessofcrudeoil.
Anotherarea ofstudythat hasanalogiesto theproblemis thetransientcoolingof waterina thermaltank.The literatureonthe subjectpresents
manyexperimental andnumericalsimulation works[1018].Among thesestudies, Nelsonet al.[12] presentedexperimental studieson thermal
stratificationinchilled-waterstoragesystemsby afiberglassstoragetankinstaticanddynamicmodesof operation.Intheirpaper,emphasiswas
giventotheeffectsofmixingattheinlet,leadingtothedefinitionofthemixingcoefficient.Rodrguezetal.[15]investigatedthetransientcooling
offluidinitiallyatrestinsideaverticalcylinder.Therelevantnondimensionalgroupsthatdefinedtheunsteadynaturalconvectionwereidentified.
AparametricstudywascarriedouttocorrelatetheNusseltnumberandthetransientmeanfluidtemperature.Finallyapredictionmodelbasedon
globalbalances wasproposed.Oliveskiet al.[16,17]analyzed thetransient temperaturedistribution andflow structureby numericalsimulation
andexperimental approaches.A correlationwas developedbetween theNusselt number,the volume,and aspectratio oftank andheat loss.The
properties difference between crude oil and water is rather significant, especially for the waxy crude oil. During cooling process, the non-
Newtonian fluidrheological behaviorcan significantlyaffect thecharacteristic ofcooling process.Nevertheless, dueto thesimilar geometryand
boundaryofheattransfer,theexistingresearchforwatertankcandefinitelyprovidesomebeneficialenlightenmentandreferenceforthetransient
coolingproblemofwaxycrudeoil.
Asmentionedabove,thestudyofcoolingprocessofwaxycrudeoilinafloatingrooftankhasnotbeenreportedintheliterature.Theaimofthis
workistoinvestigatetheflowpatternandheattransfercharacteristicinducedbyunsteadynaturalconvectionduringalong-termcoolingprocessof
waxycrudeoilinafloatingrooftankbymeansofnumericalsimulations.Inordertocharacterizethiscoolingprocessmoredistinctly,thecooling
process has been divided into four stages according to the variation of natural convection. At each stage, the profiles of temperature and flow
structurehavebeenpresented.Inaddition,theeffectoftanksize,ambienttemperature,andoilpropertiesonthecoolingratehasbeenanalyzed.
2.ProblemDefinition
Theresearchobjectisadoubledeckfloatingrooftank;thefluidandsurroundingsolidmediumareconsideredasawholecomputationaldomain,
which is illustrated in Figure 1. The roof of the tank is constituted by two thin steel plates with an air interlayer between them. Although the
thermalconductivityofairisrathersmall,theheatconductingpropertyisenhancedbythenaturalconvectionintheenclosurespace.Tosimplify
thisheattransferprocess,anequivalentthermalconductivityof0.7W/mKisintroducedbasedontestresultfromafloatingrooftank.Becauseof
thelargethermalconductivity,twothinsteelplatesareneglectedduringsimulation.Andotheraccessoriesontheroofarealsoneglected.
Figure1:Physicalmodel.
Thesidewallisconsideredinsulated,andthethermalconductivityofinsulationmaterialis0.038W/mK,andthedensityof40kg/m
3
isimposed.
Thespecificheatcapacityis1600J/kg K.Forthebottomoftank,thefoundationiscomposedbyvarietyofmaterialsandisplacedonthesoil.The
propertiesofvariousmaterialsarelistedinTable1.Thefoundationissurroundedbytheringwallmadebyconcrete.
Table1:Physicalpropertiesofdifferentmaterials.
By virtueof axialsymmetry geometricalfeature, a two-dimensionalmodel isused. Inthe axialdirection, the externalsurface ofthe tankroof is
takenasthirdkindboundarycondition.Theambienttemperatureandexternalheattransfercoefficientareimposed.Theisothermallayerofsoilis
describedasanotherboundarywithaconstanttemperature.Intheradialdirection,exceptfortheaxisymmetricboundary,thesoilfarfromthetank
is regarded as adiabatic boundary. The external surface of the sidewall of the tank and the surface of soil are all taken as third kind boundary
conditions,thesameasthetanktop.
Thewaxy crudeoilfromDaqing oilfieldwaspresented asworkingfluid. Inordertodescribe thethermophysicalpropertiesmore precisely,the
variablepropertymodelwasused.Asthecoolingprocesscontinues,thewaxcomponentswillprecipitate,whichaffectsthefluidpropertyofoil.To
representtheeffectofslightwaxcomponentsprecipitate,theviscosity-temperaturerelationshipatlowshearratetestedbyrheometerwasusedto
simulate the fluid property effect by natural convection, as shown in Figure 2. The Cp-temperature relationship was introduced to reflect the
variation of Cp changing with temperature, as shown in Figure 3. Due to the latent heat of slight wax components precipitate, no remarkable
variation is shown in fluid characteristic, except that the Cp increases slightly with the temperature dropping. When the temperature drops so
significantlythatmassindividualprecipitationofwaxcomponentsisachieved,thenetstructureofwaxcomponentsbeginstoformwhichhinders
the flow of oil prominently. Besides, the latent heat obtained by precipitationof wax components will be pronounced and will slow down the
coolingprocess.Inordertorepresentthesephysicalproperties,theporosityhypothesiswasintroduced.Theliquid-solidmushyzonemadebythe
mass precipitation of wax components is treated as a porous zonewith porosity equal to the liquid fraction, and appropriate momentum sink
termsareaddedto themomentumequationstoaccountforthe pressuredropcausedbythepresenceof wax-crystalstructure.Specifically,when
thetemperatureofoilishigherthanthelosingflowpoint,theporosityisdefinedas1andthesinktermsaretakenas0;theviscosity-temperature
andCp-temperaturerelationshipsdefinedaboveareused.Whentheoilissocoldthatthedrivingforcebydensitydifferencehardlyovercomesthe
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wax-crystalstructuralstrengthandtheconvectionvanishes,theporosityis0.Themushyzoneisaregionwhichtemperatureisbetweentheabove
two points, and the liquid fraction and porosity lie between 0 and 1. A linear relationship based on the liquid fraction versus temperature
relationshipisused.Besides,theindependentlatentheatchangingwithporosityiscontainedintheenergyequation.Forthecrudeoilusedinthe
simulation,thetwotemperaturepointsare30Cand24C.Thedensityofcrudeoilat20Cis0.85g/cm
3
,andthecoefficientofthermalexpansion
is0.000844K
1
.
Figure2:Viscosityversustemperatureforoil.
Figure3:Specificheatversustemperatureforoil.
3.MathematicalModel
3.1.GoverningEquations
The fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena involved in the transient natural convection inside a storage tank are governed by the continuity,
momentum,andenergyconservationequations.Inviewoftheexistenceofsolidmaterials,thedifferentialequationofheatconductionisinvolved.
Takingintoaccounttherangeofsizeandtemperaturedifferencebetweenoilandambientinthepresentwork,thehypothesisoflaminarflowhas
been considered. By considerably extending the range of parameters studied, higher Rayleigh number may be obtained. But the driving force
decreasesasthetank contentscoolandthecrudeoilappearsmore viscous,especiallyintheregionnearwall.Thus theconvectionbecomesweak
andthe laminarflowregimeis certaintoexist.Besides, accordingtothe researchfromLinand Armfield[19],it isexpectedthatthe resultfrom
highRayleighnumbershowedtohavethesamegeneralbehaviorasthatobservedinlowerRayleighnumberstudies,however,withconsiderably
moreactivity.Sothesimulationbasedonlaminarflowmodelisperformed.Duetotheaxialsymmetry,thegoverningequationsinaxialandradial
directionsarewrittenasfollows:
7/31/14 Transient Cooling of Waxy Crude Oil in a Floating Roof Tank
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where , , ,and arethedensity,kg/m
3
,dynamicviscosity,Pas,thespecificheatatconstantpressure,andthethermalconductivityofcrude
oil,respectively. , ,and arethedensity,thespecificheatatconstantpressure,andthermalconductivityofsolidmaterial. aretheaxialand
radialcoordinate,m. aretheaxialandradialvelocity,m/s. istheporosity. isthetemperaturewhenthedrivingforcehardlyovercomesthe
wax-crystal structuralstrength. is the losing flow point when the yield stress appears. are the momentum sink terms derived from the
Darcy law accounting for the pressure drop caused by the presence of wax-crystal structure. is the constant measures the amplitude of the
damping.Thehigherthisvalueis,thesteeperthetransitionofthevelocityofthematerialtozeroisasitsolidifies.Thechoosingof dependson
the nature offlow in mushy region withwax-crystal structure; 10
4
is chosen forthis simulation. isthe sensible enthalpy. is the reference
enthalpy. isthereferencetemperature. isthelatentheatassociatedwiththeporosityandL.Listhelatentheatattemperature higherthan
losingflowpoint.
3.2.BoundaryandInitialConditions
Forthetopandsidewallexposinginatmosphere,theboundaryconditionsareimposedas
Theboundaryontheradialdirectionofsoilisdefinedasadiabaticboundaryandexpressedas
Ontheaxialdirection,theisothermalboundaryofsoiliscomposedontheisothermallayer:
Theaxisofthecomputationaldomainisdefinedas
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where and are the extern convection heat transfer coefficients computed by the correlations for forced convection heat transfer on
conditionthattheambienttemperatureandwindspeedwereknown. isthetemperatureonboundary, istheambienttemperature,and is
thetemperatureofsoilisothermallayer.
The cooling process is assumed tostart from an initial condition of still and uniform oil temperature.The temperature distribution of solid is
determinedbytheoilandambienttemperaturefollowingasteadyheattransfercourse.
3.3.NumericalProcedure
Based on finite volumes techniques [19], the governing equations together with the boundary conditions have been discretized into algebraic
equationssystems.Duringthespatialdiscretizationcourse,diffusivetermshavebeenevaluatedusingcentraldifferencesscheme,whileconvective
termshavebeenapproximatedbymeansofQUICKscheme[20].Forthetemporaldiscretizationcourse,theimplicitfirstorderaccuratemethod
has been used. The pressureimplicit with splitting of operators (PISO) pressure-velocity coupling algorithm hasbeen used which performs an
additionalcorrectiontoimprovethe efficiencyofpressure-velocitycouplingcalculation[21,22].Especially forthetransientproblems, PISOhas
the significant advantage incalculation efficiency. Based on the abovemethods, the specific solution was achievedby the numerical calculation
codewrittenbytheauthors.
Thecomputationalgridusedtodividethedomainintodiscretecontrolvolumesforcondition9isshowninFigure4;thedepthofsoilisothermal
layer is 12.5m and 5m away from the concrete wall is taken as the radial adiabatic boundary of soil. Managed by structured grid method, the
quadrilateralgridelementwasused,constructingnonuniform600volumeelementsgridintheradialdirectionand320volumeelementsgridinthe
axialdirectioninsidethetank.Becauseofthelargegradientsofthetemperatureandvelocity,thegridrefinementatthesidewall,top,andbottomof
tankwasachieved.Inordertoanalyzetheinfluenceofthegridoncomputationalcostandthesolution,threeadditionalgridshavealsobeentested,
including240000 (600 400),217600 (680 320),and 145600(520 280); thegrid refinementstrategy isalso different.Performing thesteady
naturalconvectiononthesidewallandtopastestingcasesconcludedthatthegrid192000(600320)createdaboveissuitable.Exceptfortheoil
zone,thecomputationaldomainconsideredalsoincludestheroof,theinsulationmaterialofthesidewall,thesoil,andfoundationbelowthetank
inordertoinvestigatetheunsteadyheattransferbehaviorofthesolidmaterialanditsinfluenceonthetemperaturedistributionofoil.Duetothe
largenumberofcontrolvolumesofthemodel,amultigridmethodwasusedtoacceleratetheconvergenceofthesolver.Theconvergencecriterion
waslowerthan10
6
fortheresidualofenergyand10
3
formomentumandcontinuityequations.
Figure4:Computationalgrids.
4.ResultsandAnalysis
Inanattempttoinvestigatethegeneralcharacteristicofflowandheattransferofwaxycrudeoilinafloatingrooftank,twelveworkingconditions
havebeenestablished,moredetailsareshowninTable2.
Table2:Mainparametersfordifferentworkingconditions.
4.1.TypicalEvolutionofTransientNaturalConvectionandTemperatureField
Basedonthenumericalsolutionsofdifferentworkingconditions,thetypicalevolutionoftransientnaturalconvectionandtemperaturefieldhave
been investigated which canbe divided into four stages. For thetransient natural convection, it can be concludedas the formation, expansion,
degradation,andvanishingstage,alongwithitistheevolutionoftemperaturefieldwhichcanberegardedasthelocalcooling,integralcooling,the
thermal stratification, and heat conduction course. To illustrate the transientevolution of temperature and velocity features at different instants
duringthecoolingprocess,thesimulationresultofcondition1wastakenasrepresentative.
4.1.1.TheFormationofNaturalConvection
Atthefirstinstant,duetotheheatlossontheboundaries,thetemperatureofoilnearwallsdropsrapidly,butthetemperatureofoilelsewhereis
nearly unchanged;the axial temperatureprofile ondifferent radial coordinateis shown inFigure 5,in which and represent theradius and
liquidlevelofthetankand istheinitialtemperatureofoil.Duetotheheatlossfromthetopandsidewallatthesametime,theoilatthetop
sidewallcornercoolsmostrapidly,thustheoiltherebecomesrelativelymoredenseandbeginstotraveldownalongthesidewall.Atthesametime
the hotoil inthe coreof the tankmoves towardsthe area thecold oilonce occupied.So the transientconvection startsand theboundary layer
developsrapidlyonthesidewall,asillustratedinFigure6.Figure7istheprofileofaxialvelocityalongtheaxialdirection.Bytheinfluenceofthis
initial convection, the temperature of oil at the bottom sidewall corner becomes the lowest on bottom. As the cooling process goes on, the
temperature of oil near the top wall drops more significantly; the clue of the convection from top wall to bottom is already there. But at this
momentthere arejust someconvection cellsformed nearthetop walland theinteraction betweenthecold andhot oilis justconfined tosome
smallregions,whichcanbeseeninFigure8.Accordingtothischart,theinfluencefromthetopconvectioncellstothelargeconvectioncellnear
thesidewallseemssignificant,whichmakestheprofileofaxialvelocitynearsidewalldifferentfromthepreviouscondition,asillustratedinFigure
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9.Duetothisinfluence,thecorrelationsforthenaturalconvectiononerectwallproposedbytheformerresearchersmaynotbesuitableagain.In
Figure10 howthe temperature distributionon the radialdirection in thetank is shown; itis worth notingthat near thetop wall theprofile of
temperatureshows someapparentfluctuation correspondingtothe convectioncells.No mattertheradial oraxialdirection ofthetank, onlythe
temperature of certain position near wallsdrops apparently. The temperature in the center of the tankis nearly unchanged, the oil temperature
becomeslowerintheregionwhereare gettingclosertothewall.Atthismoment,thetopsidewallcorner isthelowesttemperatureregioninthe
tank.
Figure5:Profileofaxialdimensionlesstemperature.
Figure6:Contoursofstreamfunctionfield.
Figure7:Profileofaxialvelocityalongaxialdirection.
Figure8:Contoursofstreamfunctionfield.
Figure9:Profileofaxialvelocityalongradialdirection.
Figure10:Profileofradialdimensionlesstemperature.
4.1.2.TheExpansionofNaturalConvection
Astime marches,theregion wheremovingfluidoccupies continuestoexpand dramatically;thepreviousformed smallconvectivecells beginto
combineandtransformastimegoesby.Finallytheregionwheretheinteractionbetweencoldandhotoiloccupiesalmostcoversthetotalityofthe
tank volume; the whole region of oil nearly starts to move. The cold oil once formed at the top wall at the previous stage has accomplished
completed migration process from top to bottom. Figure 11 shows the contours of stream function field. There are apparently three large
convection cells formed in the tank; the velocity magnitude overall becomes much larger than last stage, especially in the center of the tank, as
illustratedinFigure12.Due tothelow temperaturenearthesidewall, thevelocitymagnitude of0.98Ris notincreased asfastas otherpositions.
Since the heat loss at top wall is much larger than that at the sidewall, the flow pattern from this cooling scenario is mainly described as the
macroscopicconvectionfromtoptobottom.Duetotheextensiveheatexchangebetweenthehotandcoldoil,thefluidinthetankcorebeginsto
coolaswell.Atthisstage,exceptfortheoilnearwall,thetemperatureofmostoftheoildropsrapidlyasawhole.
Figure11:Contoursofstreamfunctionfield.
Figure12:Profileofaxialvelocityalongaxialdirectionoftank.
4.1.3.TheDegradationofNaturalConvection
Asthecoldoildescends,thetemperaturedistributionofcrudeoilappearsthermalstratification,whichcanbemainlydividedintothreeregionsin
theaxisdirection,asillustratedinFigure13.Nearthetopwall,thetemperatureofoilthereisthelowestbecauseofthelargestheatloss;butdueto
theconvection,thecoverageofcoldoilneartopwallissmallerthanthatnearbottomwherethecoldtemperaturelayeristhethickestandthermal
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stratificationismostsignificant,asshowninFigures13and14.Duetotheconvectionofcoldandhotoilinthecenterofthetank,thetemperature
of oil in thecenter is still the highest andis still homogeneous, but an apparent temperaturedrop compared to last stage canbe found. As the
viscosityofwaxyoilsensitivelychangeswithtemperature,theviscosityofoilincreasesrapidlynearwallsduetothelowtemperature,leadingthe
convectiontodegradesignificantly,whichisshowninFigures15and16.Nearthetopandbottomwalls,theoilnearlystopsmoving;onlytheoil
inthecenterofthetankhasprominentvelocitymagnitude.Comparedtolaststage,themeantemperaturecontinuestodropandthemeanvelocity
magnitudeofoilsignificantlydecreases.Asthecoolingprocessmarches,thethermalstratificationcontinuestodevelopforthedecreaseofdriving
buoyancyforces,leadingthecoldregiontoenlargeandthecoreareatoreducegraduallywherethenaturalconvectionoccupies.
Figure13:Profileofaxialdimensionlesstemperature.
Figure14:Profileofradialdimensionlesstemperature.
Figure15:Contoursofstreamfunctionfield.
Figure16:Profileofaxialvelocityalongaxialdirection.
Duetothepresenceofwax-crystalstructure,theflowpatternofnaturalconvectionhaschanged.Thesurfaceofsolidifiedcrudeoilhasbecomethe
newboundaryoftheinteriorconvection.AsclearlyshowninFigure17,thenumericalvaluerepresentstheporosity.Themagnitude0represents
thesolidifiedcrudeoil,andthemagnitude1representstheoilwhichhasfreemovement.ThecorrespondingvelocityfieldinFigure18showsthat
thenaturalconvectiononceexistedonthesidewallhasshiftedtothesurfaceofsolidifiedcrudeoil.
Figure17:Distributionofsolidifiedcrudeoil.
Figure18:Contoursofvelocityfield.
4.1.4.TheVanishingofNaturalConvection
Withthetemperaturecontinuingtodrop,thewaxcomponentsincrudeoilcontinuetoprecipitate.Thenaturalconvectioninthecoldregionnear
walls firstlybegins to cease attributingto the lowtemperature, after that theregion will enlargetill the totalityof the tank volumeis contained.
When thatstage comesout, theheat conductionwill becomethe soleheat transferform. Besides,with thewax compositionseparating out,the
latent heat continues to release. Both variations slow down the cooling rate of oil and the temperature stratification appears more evident.
Throughoutthewholecoolingprocess,thedevelopmentofsolidifiedoilregioncanbeillustratedinFigure19.
Figure19:Theevolutionofsolidifiedoilregion.
As it is shown in Figure 19, at the first instant, due to the large heat loss, the solidified oil mostly forms near the top wall but distributes
sporadically.Besides,becauseoftheconvectionatthesidewallthesolidifiedcrudeoilformsatthebottomsidewallcorner.Afterthat,thesolidified
crudeoildevelopstogetherandstepbystepcoversthetopsurface.Atthesametime,thesolidifiedoilatthebottomsidewallcornerenlargesintwo
forms.Ononehand,thesolidifiedcrudeoilexpandsalongthebottomwall tothecenterofit.Onanotherhand,solidifiedoilexpandsalongthe
sidewallandgraduallycoversthewall.Finallythesolidifiedcrudeoilnearwallsformsthesolidifiedlayerstructure,whichismostconcentratedat
thebottomsidewallcorner;aregularandthicksolidifiedlayerexitsatthetopwall;atthesidewallthesolidifiedlayerpresentsasolidifiedstructure
withrelativelythinnerthicknessintheupperpartandgraduallyincrassatingalongthesidewalltowardsthebottom.Inthebottompartofthetank,
especiallyfar fromthe sidewall,mostregions arecovered bythemushy crudeoil whichisthe mixtureof solidifiedandliquid oiland occupya
largepartofthetankheight.Theexistenceofsolidifiedcrudeoilslowsdownthecoolingrate,partlybecauseofthethermalresistance,andthelatent
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heat is another significant reason. During the cooling process of waxy crude oil, the first and second stages last very short time; most time is
occupiedbythethirdandfourthstages.Inthefourthstage,thecoolingrateisthelowestandpresentsthelongestperiod.Butthisstageisregarded
as anaccident andis forbiddenin theactual crudeoil storageprocess. Thus, thethird stagepresents themost usualcondition duringthe actual
storageprocessofwaxycrudeoil.
4.2.TheEffectFactorontheCoolingRateofWaxyOil
Themeantemperatureofcrudeoilisdefinedasfollows:
InFigure20,itisshownhowthetanksizeinfluencesthecoolingrateofoil.Althoughtheheatlossareaisenlargedwiththeincreasingtanksize,the
increasingmassofoilcansignificantlyslowdownthecoolingrate,andtheheatlossofunitmassoildecreaseinthemeantime.Thevolumeoftank
changesfrom30.6m
3
(condition1)to367m
3
(condition 5)and3165m
3
(condition 9).Themeantemperatures ofoilafter60 hoursare27.1C,
35.2C, and 38.5C, which indicates that with the increase of tank size, the cooling rate largely slows down. Moreover, when the tank size gets
smaller,theinfluenceoftanksizeappearsmoreapparent;thustheinfluenceisestimatedtobeweakwhenthetanksizeenlargestosomepoint.At
themoment,largefloatingroofoiltankisgettingmoreandmorewidelyused,whichimprovesthecentralizationmanagementextent.Thelowheat
lossmaybeanotherimportantfactor.However,forthelargetanksize,especiallythelargetankdiameter,theincreasingheatlossareaoftankroof
cansignificantlyweakentheinsulationeffect.Soincreasingthetankheightpresentstobemoreeffectiveforenergysaving.
Figure20:Theevolutionofmeantemperatureversustanksize.
Forthesametanksize,thetemperaturegradientbetweenoilandambientbecomesthemostimportantfactorthataffectsthecoolingrate.Withthe
increasingtemperaturedifference,thecoolingrateofoilbecomeshigher.Figure21showsthedifferentmeantemperaturevariationbycomparing
condition1andcondition2,condition5andcondition6,andcondition9andcondition10,whichverifiesthisconclusion.Moreover,thelarger
thetanksizeis,thesmallerthevariationofoiltemperaturepresentstothesameambienttemperaturevariation.Forthemanagementofoiltank,the
largetanksizewillbringconvenience,andtheoilstoragesecurityisalsoimproved.
Figure21:Theevolutionofmeantemperatureversusambient .
In order to investigate the effect of oil properties on cooling rate, the viscosity and specific heat have been taken as two main factors to be
examined. To investigate the effect of viscosity, six extra numerical conditions have been performed, which employed two different kinds of
viscosity-temperaturerelationshipswhichare,respectively,oneandtenpercentoftheformerdefinedone(inFigure2)andthreekindsoftanksizes
used abovewere alsoincluded. Figure22 clearlyshows thatfor the sametank size,with theincrease of viscosity,the naturalconvection decays,
concomitant the reduced heat loss. When the viscosity decreases to 1 percent of the magnitude previously defined (in Figure 2), the mean
temperatureofoildecreasesfrom27.1Cto24.9Cforthetanksizewith , after60hourscoolingprocess.Andwiththeincreaseof
tank size, the variation becomes smaller. Thus for the thickened oil with high viscosity, a slower cooling rate and an uneven temperature
distributionisexpected.SixadditionalnumericalconditionshavealsobeencarriedouttoevaluatetheeffectofCponcoolingrate,asillustratedin
Figure23.The80percentand120percentofthespecificheatdefinedbefore(inFigure3)wereemployed.WiththeincreaseofCp,thelargerthe
heatcapacityofoilorthehigherthecomponentofwax,thelowerthecoolingrate.Thusthewaxycrudeoilshouldhaveamuchslowercoolingrate
forthereleaseoflatentheatduetotheprecipitationofwaxcompositions.
Figure22:Evolutionofmeantemperatureversusviscosity.
Figure23:EvolutionofmeantemperatureversusCp.
By comparing theabove four factors thataffect cooling process ofwaxy crude oil, thetank size is regardedas the most remarkableone. So the
centralizationstorageofcrudeoilisconsideredtobeamoreenergyconservationstoragepattern.Ambienttemperatureisanotherimportantfactor
determiningthecoolingratewhichcannotbechanged.Theeffectofcrudeoilpropertyisnotasprominentastheformertwo.TheinfluenceofCp
presentstobemoresignificantcomparingwithviscosityonthecoolingrate.
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5.ResultVerification
5.1.TheTemperatureProfile
Atemperaturetestingsystemhasbeendevelopedandinstalledonafloatingrooftankof110
4
m
3
inDaqingoilfieldofChina.Thetestingsystem
is constituted by four parts. The temperature test part which closely contacts with crude oil has been made into a testing rod where multiple
temperaturesensors unequallydistribute, thereare sixtesting rodsin totaland eachone correspondsto adata acquisitiondevice onthe roofto
collecttheresistance signalsfromthesensors. Sometransmissionlineshave beenusedtoconnecteach dataacquisitionandthe mainmoduleby
whichthe testeddatacan bedisplayedandstored realtimely.The sixtestingrods haveamountedto64 temperaturesensorslocated ondifferent
positionsofthetank,demonstratingtheaxialandradialprofileoftemperature.Figure24brieflyshowsthecompositionofthetestingsystem.
Figure24:Thetemperaturetestingsystem.
Basedonthetestingsystem,thetestingworkhaslastedforaboutthreemonthsinwinter.Thelowestambienttemperaturewas28C.Inorderto
avoid the solidification of waxy crude oil, the heating equipment was activated when the temperature of oil dropped to low. Figure 25 is the
temperature profile along the axis direction from the numerical simulation and the testing rod located in the gauge hatch. The profile of oil
temperaturefromtestingresultsmainlyagreeswellwiththenumericalresultswhichcanalsobedividedintothreeparts;nearthetopandbottom
wall,thetemperatureislowerthanthatinthecenterofthetank.Andthelowtemperatureregionnearthebottomislargerthanthatnearthetop
wall.Thetemperatureinthecoreoftankisthehighestandishomogeneous.Moreover,comparingthetransienttemperaturedistributionafterone
monthand ahalf,the temperaturein thecoreregion droppedslowly;the coolingrateof thetopand bottomregion wasmuchlarger. Themost
prominent variation is that the cold region enlarged as time marched. In a word, the difference of temperature value between the testing and
simulationresultspresentstobeclosetoeachotherandthetemperaturechangelawsarecoincident,thusverifiesthenumericalsimulationresults.
Figure25:Thecomparisonoftestedandnumericalresults.
5.2.FlowPattern
Nowthereisnodirectresearchresultfortheflowpatternoftheunsteadynaturalconvectioninfloatingrooftank.Accordingtotheflowpatternof
natural convectionin dome rooftank proposedby Cotter andCharles [4], due tothe predominant heat lossat the sidewall, theconvection cell
inducedbythesidewallplaysadominantroleinthetank.However,asthecoolingprocessdevelops,anothersmallconvectioncellarises.Forthe
floatingrooftankthetopwallisthesectionwiththemostheatloss;thenaturalconvectionmustbemorecomplicated.
6.Conclusions
Thelong-termbehavioroftransientnaturalconvectionandheattransferduringthewaxycrudeoilcoolinginafloatingrooftankhasbeendeeply
investigated by numerical method. Due to the different characteristic, the typical evolution of transient natural convection and temperature
distributionare dividedintofourstages. Forthetransientnatural convection,itcanbe concludedastheformation, expansion,degradation,and
vanishingstage,alongwithitistheevolutionoftemperaturefieldwhichisregardedasthelocalcooling,integralcooling,thethermalstratification.
and heat conduction course. For each stage, the temperature distribution is associated greatly with the natural convection. During the cooling
processofwaxycrudeoil,thefirstandsecondstageslastveryshorttime,mosttimeisoccupiedbythethirdandfourthstages.Inviewofthesafety
matter,thethirdstagebecomesthemostusualconditionduringtheactualstorageprocessforwaxycrudeoil.
Theprecipitationofwaxcomponentsincrudeoilmakesdifferencetothecoolingprocess.Ononehand,thewax-crystalstructurewillbeformed
andithindersthemovementofoil,thustheconvectionbecomesweakandheterogeneoustemperaturedistributionisobtained.Onanotherhand,
thereleaseoflatentheatbecomesapparentwhenamassofwaxcomponentsseparateout.Bothvariationsslowdownthecoolingrateofoilandthe
temperature stratification appears more evident. Moreover, for different stages of cooling process, the pattern of solidified oil region is
distinguished. And the development of solidified oil region is illustrated in detail. The main characteristic of cooling process obtained from
numericalresultsshowsagoodagreementwiththetemperaturetestresultsfromalargefloatingtankintheoildepot.
Thetanksize,thetemperaturegradientbetweenoilandambient,theviscosity,andCpofcrudeoilareregardedasthemainfactorsonthecooling
rate.Accordingtothesimulationresultsfromdifferentconditions,Correspondingtothelargertanksize,smallertemperaturegradient,orhigher
viscosityandCpofcrudeoil,thecoolingrateofoilwillbemuchsmaller.Amongthefourfactors,thetanksizeisregardedasthemostremarkable
one.Sothecentralizationstorageofcrudeoilisconsideredtobeamoreenergyconservationstoragepattern.
ConflictofInterests
Theauthorsdeclarethatthereisnoconflictofinterestsregardingthepublicationofthispaper.
Acknowledgments
TheauthorsaregratefultotheNatureScienceFundofHeiLongJiangProvinceforsponsoringthiswork.Inaddition,theauthorsexpressgratitude
totheKeyLaboratoryof EnhancedOilandGasRecoveryofEducationalMinistryandtheTransportation andStorageandMarketingSubsidiary
7/31/14 Transient Cooling of Waxy Crude Oil in a Floating Roof Tank
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CompanyofDaqingOilFieldforthesupportofthetemperaturetestwork.
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