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Cheresources.com Community → Community Blog → Ankur's_Chemical_Engg_Blog → Empirical Equations For Pressure Drop In Crude Oil And White Oil Pipelines

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Empirical Equations For Pressure Drop In Crude Oil And White Oil
Pipelines
27 August 2012

Posted by ankur2061 in Technical

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Most of the experienced chemical engineers know about the Darcy-Weisbach equation for frictional pressure drop using the Darcy friction factor
values from Moody's chart. The Moody chart provides the Darcy friction factor values for a given Reynold's number and a given relative roughness for
conduits with a circular cross-section (circular pipes).

For newcomers to pressure drop calculations the references provided for Darcy-Weisbach and Moody's chart below could be great starting points:

http://en.wikipedia....isbach_equation

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Moody_chart

Today's blog entry is related to some empirical equations for pressure drop calculations in Crude Oil & Petroleum products (Gasoline, Naphtha, Kerosene) pipelines. Let
us get to the equations straight away:

Shell-MIT Equation - Pressure Drop in Heavy Crude Oil & Heated Liquid Pipelines (USC Units)

R = 92.24*Q / (v*Di)

where:

R = Reynolds no, dimensionless

Q = Flow Rate, bbl / day

v = Kinematic Viscosity, cSt

Di = Pipe internal diameter, inches

Rm = R / 7742

where:

Rm = modified Reynolds number, dimensionless

Pressure Drop

Pm = 0.241*f*Sg*Q2 / Di5

where:

Pm = Frictional Pressure Drop, psi / mile

Sg = Liquid Specific Gravity, dimensionless (water = 1.0)

f = friction factor, dimensionless (calculated as below)

Laminar Flow:

f = 0.00207 / Rm

Turbulent Flow:

f = 0.0018 + 0.00662*(1 / Rm)0.355

Shell-MIT Equation - Pressure Drop in Heavy Crude Oil & Heated Liquid Pipelines (Metric Units)

R = 353,678*Q / (v*Di)

where:

R = Reynolds no, dimensionless

Q = Flow Rate, m3 / h

v = Kinematic Viscosity, cSt

Di = Pipe internal diameter, mm

Rm = R / 7742

where:

Rm = modified Reynolds number, dimensionless

Pressure Drop

Pm = 6.2191E10*f*Sg*Q2 / Di5

where:

Pm = Frictional Pressure Drop, kPa / km

Sg = Liquid Specific Gravity, dimensionless (water = 1.0)

f = friction factor, dimensionless (calculated as below)

Laminar Flow:

f = 0.00207 / Rm

Turbulent Flow:

f = 0.0018 + 0.00662*(1 / Rm)0.355

T R Aude Equation - Pressure Drop in Refined Petroleum Products (Gasoline, Naphtha, Kerosene) Pipelines (6" and 8" line size only) (USC units)

Pm = (Q*µ0.104*Sg0.448 / (0.871*K*Di2.656))1.812

where:

Pm = Pressure drop due to friction, psi / mile

Q = flow rate, bbl / hr

Di = pipe internal diameter, inches

Sg = Liquid specific gravity, dimensionless

µ = Liquid Viscosity, cP

K = pipe roughness / efficiency factor (usually 0.9 to 0.95)

T R Aude Equation - Pressure Drop in Refined Petroleum Products (Gasoline, Naphtha, Kerosene) Pipelines (6" & 8" line size only) (Metric units)

Pm = 8.888E8*(Q*µ0.104*Sg0.448 / (0.871*K*Di2.656))1.812

where:

Pm = Pressure drop due to friction, kPa / km

Q = flow rate, m3 / h

Di = pipe internal diameter, mm

Sg = Liquid specific gravity, dimensionless

µ = Liquid Viscosity, cP

K = pipe roughness / efficiency factor (usually 0.9 to 0.95)

Reference: Liquid Pipeline Hydraulics by E. Shashi Menon

It is important to note that these equations cannot be generalized for any liquid flow and are specifically meant for the liquids mentioned in the titles of these equations.
Also note that the T. R. Aude equation is targeted for 6" & 8" pipelines for white oil products. Apparently these equations were developed for specific products, line sizes
and for long distance pipelines and would provide more accurate pressure drop values than the Darcy-Weisbach equation for pipe friction loss. The interpretation behind
these equations being more accurate would be based on their being developed based on actual field tests for the mentioned liquids and line sizes. An important thing to
note for liquid transmission in long-distance pipelines is that, the liquid density and viscosity is not constant along the entire length of the pipeline. Another aspect of
long-distance pipeline transmission of liquids is that, liquids generally considered to be incompressible, are not so over the long transmission distances encountered in
pipelines. In fact for pipeline transmission of liquids, liquids are considered to be partially compressible which would explain the development of these empirical
equations.

If high accuracy is not a pre-requisite for pressure drop calculations for the mentioned liquids and line sizes then my advice to all would be to use the Darcy-Weisbach
equation which should provide conservative pressure drop values.

Hope to get quite a few comments on this blog entry from the readers of my blog.

Regards,
Ankur.
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Thanks Ankur!
This is useful!
sheiko
Aug 27 2012 02:20 PM

Thank so much Mr. Ankur, your posts are really useful, specially for Excel sheets. Greetings from Mexico.

JAVilleg
Aug 27 2012 05:26 PM

Thanks Ankur

Emad Elgebesy
Aug 28 2012 08:56 AM

There is one thing I did notice Ankur,

darwish The shell-MIT equation does not need the length of the pipeline in question, where conventional approaches (Darcy-Weir) require a length
Sep 05 2012 02:07 PM parameter. I made a quick spreadsheet comparing the two equations and it seems that the pressure drop calculation results vary significantly
when compared to the Darcy-Weirbash approach.

The pressure drops are not in agreement unless the length parameter in the Darcy equation is above 9000 m or 9 km.

I was just wondering if this is to be expected?

I appreciate the input

Darwish,

ankur2061 Th Shell-MIT equation is for a unit length of either 1 mile (USC units) or 1 km (Metric Units), hence there is no length parameter in the
Sep 06 2012 01:18 AM equation.

While the Darcy-Wiesbach is a generalized pressure drop equation with friction factor derived from the Moody's chart for circular conduits the
Shell-MIT equation is specifically developed for heavy crude oil (high viscosity) long-distance pipelines.

As I mentioned if you are looking for accurate pressure drop over long-distance heavy crude oil pipelines than Shell-MIT should give the more
accurate results.

Regards,
Ankur.

Thank very much Mr. Ankur.

greengeek Can you post some correlations for Bitumen and Fuel oil too?
Sep 20 2012 10:44 PM

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