Experimental study of aging oil viscosity reduction caused by ultrasound

Properties of crude oil are affected by its own components and the external environment. During the transportation of crude oil, aging oil is easy to be formed, which performs ultra-high viscosity. This makes it difficult to be transported effectively. In addtion, the viscosity of aging oil is difficult to be reduced by chemical agent and traditional methods. In this study, the aging oil from Daqing Oilfield is treated by ultrasound and the corresponding viscosity reduction is evaluated by measuring the viscosity-temperature curve. The effects of treatment duration, ultrasonic power density and vibration mode are investigated. The results show that the viscosity of aging oil decreases with increasing the ultrasonic power density and treatment duration obviously. Typically, the viscosity of aging oil at 20°C decreases from 13657 mPa·s to 3039 mPa·s when the treatment duration is 2 minutes. Comparing with the aging oil treated by horn ultrasonic transducer, the aging oil treated by radial ultrasonic transdu...