Simulation of oil flow in a heat traced piping segment - COMSOL versus analytical trends

Oil flow in a circular piping usually requires excessive modeling with detailed correlations to describe the oil flow behavior. The ineffective pour point depressants and the inefficient heat tracing makes oil flow simulation an essential task. Due to the varying of oil characteristics, a robust modeling approach is necessary to guarantee the integrity of the oil flow in the piping system and to avoid additional costs. In this work, a proposed approach coordinates the modeling tools (e.g. Aspen HYSYS (R), COMSOL Multiphysics (R)) to simulate the oil flow in a circular pipe satisfactorily. The oil properties have been extracted from Aspen HYSYS (R) and used in COMSOL Multiphysics (R) to describe the varying in oil flow characteristics. Numerous computational trials have been conducted to estimate the oil temperature profiles in the axial and radial directions to ensure the oil flow above the pour point. Moreover, the numerical results were computed to estimate the oil temperature profiles for constant and temperature-dependent oil properties. Finally, an analytical approach was established using dimensional analysis to compare with COMSOL numerical results at constant oil properties. Both results showed a consistent trend match.

Automated summary

Oil flow in a circular piping usually requires detailed modeling with correlations to describe its behavior. Ineffective pour point depressants and inefficient heat tracing make oil flow simulation essential. A robust modeling approach is necessary to ensure the integrity of oil flow and avoid additional costs due to varying oil characteristics. This work proposes a coordinated modeling approach using Aspen HYSYS and COMSOL Multiphysics to satisfactory simulate oil flow in a circular pipe. Oil properties extracted from Aspen HYSYS are used in COMSOL Multiphysics to describe varying oil flow characteristics. Computational trials are conducted to estimate oil temperature profiles and compare with an analytical approach using dimensional analysis, showing consistent trends.