Introduction:
Density is the mass of material measured at certain temperature and pressure. To
determine the density of a substance both mass and volume of sample must be
determined .in petroleum industry, it is necessary to characterize a reservoir fluid, by
measuring the density of various especially heavy fraction of the sample.
Most of the time the density values must be measured very accurate. in the other
hand ,liquid density is sensitive to temperature and pressure change and also as the time
is passing by ,the reservoir fluid composition is changing .this problem is much severe for
gases .
Thus the conventional model of measuring density is not applicable to reservoir fluid
samples. An alternative to measure reservoir fluid sample density is to use another
physical property which is related to density and mass of substances.
Density (Gravity):
The density of a substance is the weight of a given volume, such as pounds per cubic
foot. A convenient method of expressing the same physical property is the specific
gravity, in which no units of measurement need to be specified.
Specific gravity is the ratio of the weights of equal volumes of the substance in question
and pure water. Since volume is affected by temperature and pressure, these conditions
must be specified.
The practice in the United States is to compare the weight of unit volumes of oil and
water at 60 degree F and one atmosphere pressure. Tables are available for converting
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measurements made at any other temperature. Since the price of crude oil is commonly
based on "gravity," these measurements are important.
The API gravity scale is an arbitrary one, which has the advantage of simplifying the
construction of hydrometers, because it enables the stems to be calibrated linearly. API
gravity does not have a straight-line relationship with specific gravity, nor with the other
physical properties correlated with specific gravity, such as viscosity.
High values of API gravity correspond to low specific gravity and low values of API
gravity to high specific gravity; so the scale cannot be used directly in engineering
calculations.
A similar scale is the European Baum gravity scale. These two arbitrary scales are related
to specific gravity by the following formulas:
Degree. API =141.5 / (spec. Gr at 60 degree F) - 131.5
Degree baume =140 / (spec.Gr at 60 degree F) -130
Among the physical properties commonly considered in various classification of crude
oil, density is one of the most important physical properties. Different methods of
measurement of crude density have been devised. One of these methods is method of
determination of density and specific gravity of liquids by digital density meter, DMA.
This test method is used to determine the density or specific gravity of crude oil,
gasoline, diesel fuel, and chemicals at temperatures between 15C and 35 with vapor
pressure below 600 mm.
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A volume of liquid is introduced into an oscillating tube and the change in frequency
caused by change in mass of the tube in respect to calibration data determines the density
of the sample. The test is run by using three fluids, water, air, and oil at a constant
temperature separately. Using the data obtained from the test and the formula below
which are pertained to DMA-45 we are able to calculate the density of crude oil.
= (T^2 – B)/ A
A = (T1^2 – T2^2)/(1 - 2 (
B = T1^2 – A.1
Where:
1/T = frequency of oscillating tube when filled with oil, sec^-1.
1/T1 = frequency of oscillating tube when filled with air, sec^-1.
1/T2 = frequency of oscillating tube when filled with water, sec^-1.
1 = density of air, gr/cc.
2 = density of water, gr/cc.
= density of oil, gr/cc.
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Density- temperature diagram for a Pure Substance:
The shape of a typical density-temperature diagram is given in Figure 1. The line shows
the densities of the liquid and gas that coexist in the two-phase region. Often these are
called the saturated densities.
Notice that the densities of the liquid and gas are identical at the critical point. The
average densities of the liquid and gas will plot as a straight line which passes through the
critical point. This property is known as the Law of rectilinear diameters .the dashed line
on Figure 1 shows these average densities.
Fig. 1: Typical density-temperature diagram of pure substances.
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Experimental Apparatus and Procedure:
In this experiment we will familiar with density measurement apparatus (DMA-45), it is
formed from two parts.
First part is bath which has electric heater in water for controlling our suitable
temperature for experiment.
The second part which is important part of our apparatus which measure the frequency of
our fluid, it can work without the first part ,it works by electric power ,in our apparatus
there is an u-shape tube which we inject our fluid to it by a syringe or exit our fluid from
if by two holes on side of our apparatus.
You can see a schematic view of our apparatus in figure 2.
First we turn on our apparatus, we should do this experiment for 3 fluids at three different
temperature.Water and air are as standard fluids for our apparatus by this two fluid and a
series of formula which is given to us we can obtain density of the third fluid which is
crude oil.
By a pump we should clean u-shape tube and dry it(pump inject air to u-shape tube and
dry it when our fluid is water ,but when our fluid is oil and we want to clean u-shape tube
we also should use toluene).
Hot water circulated surrounding of u-shape tube to hot our fluid to this temperature we
can change temperature of hot water by its controller. if we want to know the action of
our apparatus we can imagine that our u-shape tube is as a spring and our fluid is as a
weight connected to it and is oscillating our spring has a frequency which is like our
frequency in DMA-45 .
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The natural frequency of a system is related to mass of the system as described by the
following formula:
T=2п √(m / k)
In which
T is the period of oscillation
m is the total mass of the system
K is the constant of the system
We read frequencies of fluids and record them you can see them in the data section of
this report.
The oscillatory part of DMA-45 consists of a u- tube around which the temperature is
held constant by circulating water supplied by water bath. The sample can be injected
into the u-tube. The whole system, which is the u-tube and the fluid inside it, is then
brought to un damped oscillation by an electronic rotor. Both straight sections of the U -
shaped tube form the spring element of the oscillator.
The direction of the oscillation lies on the same plane as the U- tube. The oscillating
volume V is limited by fixed mounting points. If the sample is introduced into the
oscillator at least up to the mounting points, then the known volume V of the sample
oscillates, as well. The mass of the sample can therefore be considered proportional to its
density.
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Assuming that the temperature is held constant, the density can be calculated from the
period by considering a hollow body with mass m oscillating on a spring with a spring
constant k. The volume V of the body is then filled with a sample of density p. The
Natural frequency of this spring mass is:
Using the abbreviations A and Bare:
A = 4*л^2*V/ k and B=4*л^2*m/ k
Therefore:
A=(T1^2-T2^2)/(ρ1-ρ2)
В=T1^2-A*ρ1
ρ=(T^2-B)/A
Constants A, B comprise the spring constant of the oscillator, the mass of the empty tube
and the volume of the sample involved in the oscillation. A, B are device constants and
completely depend on the design and geometry of the density meter and oscillator. They
can be derived from two period measurements when the oscillator has been filled with
substances of known density (normally air and water). These constants can be stored in
the memory of DMA-45. The built-in processor solves equation and directly displays the
density of the sample.
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Fig.2: schematic view of DMA-45 apparatus
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Experimental results:
On our apparatus is writes this formula:
A=(T1^2-T2^2)/(ρ1-ρ2)
В=T1^2-A*ρ1
ρ=(T^2-B)/A
I supposed 1:air
And 2: water
also we know A and B depend to temperature and pressure our experiment is done in
atmospheric pressure. We should read initial densities which detected by indexes in
above formula from a table or we can use formula of table and obtain density of air and
water at given temperatures.
Density of air at temperature t (degree Celsius) and pressure p (torr) is calculated by :
density of air =.0012930/(1+.00367*t)*p/760
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The frequencies obtained for air at these three temperatures are such below:
t T A B ρ(kg/m3)
45 6.1646 0.00111
40 6.1506 0.00113
30 6.1523 0.00116
And the frequencies obtained for water at these three temperatures are such below:
t T A B ρ(kg/m3)
45 8.2123 990.21
40 8.2309 992.21
30 8.2311 995.65
From before data and before formula also experimental frequencies which obtained for
oil we calculate the density of the oil our calculation are such below:
T T A B ρ(density)
45 8.04 0.0299 37.7782 901.83
40 8.0549 0.0302 37.8298 895.75
30 8.0725 0.03 37.8508 910.48
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In below I plotted vs. temperature:
t ρ(density)
45 901.83
40 895.75
30 910.48
ρ(density)
915
910
density
905
900
895
890
0 10 20 30 40 50
temp.
Fig.3: density vs. temperature diagram.
We use from definition of thermal expansion to obtain the slope of the curve:
ß=-1/v*(dV/dt) → ß*dt=-1/V*(dV) →ß*(t-t0) =-ln (V/V0)
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ρ=1/v→ln (ρ/ρ0) =ß*(t-t0)
Or
Ln (ρ)-ln (ρ0) =ß (t-t0)
Now we use our data and obtain ß:
From t0=30 to t=40 → ß=2.351*10^-4
And
From t0=40 to t=45 → ß= -1.764*10^-4
Discussion and Recommendation:
In this experiment we only searched the effect of temperature on density by the
DMA at atmospheric pressure.
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Refer to our results the density of oil first decreased with decreasing our
temperature and second it increased it is like water density between 10 degree
Celsius to 0 degree Celsius.
Density of water from 10 degree Celsius to 4 degree decreases and from 4 degree
to 0 degree increases.
May be it is because of asphalten content of oil or also because of uncertain
molecular structure of them in crude oil.
The density of liquids can be measured by using the physical laws pertained to
vibration and oscillation.
Density of liquids depends on temperature. For oil the more temperature the less
the density.
Advantages of using DMA-45:
Reliable result with accuracies up to 10-6 (g/cc) are available within minutes.
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The oscillatory tube can be filled simply by means of syringe.
A precise internal thermostat ensures correct temperature measurement.
Only 0.7 cc of sample is required.
For density measurement under extreme conditions m external measuring cell are
available for high and low temperatures as well as for high temperatures.
Easy to clean and dry.
References:
geology of petroleum by A.L.LEVERSON
Properties of petroleum fluid by WILLIAM D. McCAIN,jr.
http://www.able.co.uk/siteindex.htm
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Appendix:
ABLE can offer numerous
configurations of density measurement
for both pipeline and vessel
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configurations to suit your needs. Available with industry standard HART® protocol for
programming and calibration.
Principle of Operation:
Nuclear density gauges consist of a sealed source in a source holder and a scintillation
detector. The source holder is mounted on the side of a pipe or chute with the detector on
the opposite side. A focused beam of radiation is transmitted from the source through the
pipe and process material to the detector. As the density of the material in the pipe
changes the amount of radiation reaching the detector changes. The greater the density of
the material, the lower the radiation field at the detector; the lower the density of the
material, the higher the radiation field at the detector.
When the radiation strikes the scintillation crystal, pulses of light are emitted which are
detected by the photomultiplier tube. The amount of light is proportional to the amount of
radiation striking the detector. The photomultiplier tube then creates a signal that is
proportional to the amount of light received which is sent to the electronics for
conversion to a 4 to 20mA or other useable process signal. Low density material allows
greater radiation to reach the scintillation detector.
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