Analysis of the flow and thermal-fluid–solid coupling of crude oil in circular pipe caused by variable pressure gradient

Abstract Globally, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has become a pressing issue as the demand for crude oil continues to increase. This study investigates the flow and thermal-fluid–solid coupling of crude oil in a rod pump during hot water recovery and obtains the maximum recovery of crude oil in a vertical pipeline through numerical analysis. The pressure gradient in the pump barrel was first developed and deduced based on the ideal gas state equation and Bernoulli’s equation. According to the rheological experiment results, it was proven that the light crude oil conforms to the Newtonian constitutive equation. Subsequently, the momentum equation of crude oil flowing in the pipeline and fluid–solid coupling heat transfer equations were established and solved using the finite difference method. The effects of the thermal recovery temperature T w , wall thickness c , and stroke time n of the rod pump on flow Q are discussed. In particular, the flow Q within 1 min first increases and then slows down with the increase in stroke time n and reaches its maximum value at n = 7 r/min. Furthermore, flow Q decreases with an increase in c but increases as T w increases; c = 1.2 cm, T w = 363 K is the best oil recovery scheme.