Effect of tubular heater structures on the thermal behaviors of waxy crude oil

In this paper, we research the temperature field, flow field and melting law of gelled crude oil with different diameters, locations and inclination angles of heating tube by numerical simulation method. Using the synergy angle, temperature variance and effective heating ratio as evaluation indices, the effect of the heating tube and distribution homogeneity of the temperature field were examined. The simulation results show that the temperature field and velocity field of waxy crude oil and the melting law of gelled crude oil are basically the same under different conditions. The most important factor affecting average temperature and temperature variance is the location of heating tube, which can increase the average temperature by 1.252 °C and decrease the temperature variance by 9.019°C2. The most important factor affecting the synergy angle is the inclination angle of heating tube, which can be reduced by 4.104°. In the 8 cases, when the inclination angle of the heating tube is 45°, the temperature maintaining effect of tubular heating is the best, and the synergy angle is the smallest. The least temperature variance is the uniform arrangement of heating tube. The results of this study will provide theoretical guidance for the optimization design of tubular heater structure.