Numerical Study on the Static Cooling of Waxy Crude Oil in the Vault Tank

By means of additional specific heat capacity and momentum source terms methods, the physical and mathematical models of the heat transfer process of waxy crude oil during its static cooling in the vault tank are established. Through the numerical simulations for the cooling process of waxy crude oil in the vault tank, the detailed information about the flow field formed by natural convection together with the evolution of the temperature field is presented synchronously. Furthermore, more concern is taken on the evolution characteristics of the gelatinization structure of waxy crude oil and the relation between the distribution of the temperature field and flow field. Some conclusions include that it presents the significant coupling relationship between the natural convection and temperature field during the cooling. And the transition of the heat transfer mechanism from natural convection to heat conduction mainly contributes to the evolution of the thermal performance of waxy crude oil during its static cooling.