Rheological Properties of Light Crude Oil and Its Emulsions in Saadatabad Oil Field

The rheological properties of Saadat-abad light crude oil and its emulsions were studied experimentally. These rheological characteristic include steady flow behavior and viscoelastic properties. The influence of temperature and water content of emulsions are also investigated. A MCR302 Anton Paar rheometer was employed in all of the rheological examination tests.The light crude oil exhibits a Newtonian and for emulsion exhibits a non-Newtonian shear thinning behavior over the examined shear rate range of 0.1–1000 (1/s). The viscosity of all samples decreases considerably with temperature over the range of 0–30 °C.The results showed that the viscosity of the prepared emulsions increased with their water contents up to 40%. The viscous and elastic modules were obtained at 20°C and shown to be dependent on both shear rate and volume fraction of water. Despite the viscous modulus being almost the same for crude oil and its emulsions, for the crude oil the elastic modulus was significantly lower than that observed for emulsions. The results indicated that the rheological properties of emulsions were significantly influenced by the water contents, temperature and shear rate.

Keywords:

Crude Oil , Rheology , Viscosity , Transportation , Emulsion