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Transient cooling of petroleum by natural convection in cylindrical storage tanks: A simplified heat loss model
Author(s) -
Cotter Mark A.,
Charles Michael E.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.5450700608
Subject(s) - nusselt number , natural convection , thermodynamics , rayleigh number , physics , mechanics , heat transfer , turbulence , reynolds number
The transient cooling by natural convection of a warm crude oil contained in a large vertical cylindrical storage tank located in a cold environment is investigated. The governing mass, momentum and energy equations utilizing a temperature‐dependent apparent viscosity were solved numerically, and from the results a correlation is developed between the Nusselt number at the sidewall and the instantaneous Rayleigh number driving the time‐dependent flow. A simplified heat loss model is developed to predict the mean tank temperature over time, utilizing this correlation to calculate a time‐dependent heat transfer coefficient for the sidewall. The results from the simplified model are compared with the mean tank temperatures results from a simulation of the full natural convection equations for the cooling of a crude oil in a 60 m diameter tank, and excellent agreement is obtained.