Effect of Water Fraction on Rheological Properties of Waxy Crude Oil Emulsions

Abstract

This article discusses the effect of water fraction on the rheological properties of waxy crude oil emulsions including gel point, yield stress, viscosity, and thixotropy. The experimental results reveal that the rheological behaviors of the w/o emulsion samples all intensify with the increase of water volume fraction within 60%. Of more significance is that a correlation for w/o emulsions between yield stress and water volume fraction is put forward with an average relative error of 6.75%. In addition, some mainstream viscosity prediction models of w/o emulsions are evaluated, and Elgibaly model is the best-fit for the emulsions in this study.

Keywords:

• Gel point
• thixotropic behaviors
• viscosity
• waxy crude oil emulsion
• yield stress

Notes

^a Viscosity measured at a shear rate of 20 s⁻¹.

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