DEPARTMENT OF PETROLEUM ENGINEEING

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
SORAN UNIVERSITY

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 1

 Transport Processes in Petroleum Production

Catalog Description: The course covers basics and applications of fluid mechanics (statics; mass, energy, and momentum
balances; laminar and turbulent flow, Reynolds number, Moody diagram; flow of non-Newtonian fluids; multi-phase flow; flow
in porous media, non-Darcy flow), and of heat transfer (heat conduction, convection, heat exchangers). It also emphasizes
analogies and similarities within mass, energy and momentum transport.
Topics Covered:

1. Mass balance: steady state and unsteady state.

2. Energy balance: the extended Bernoullis equation; Fluid-flow measurements
3. Fluid friction characterization; Reynolds number; Laminar and turbulent flow; Minor losses
4. Non-Newtonian fluid flow: Models and calculations; Starting and stopping flows, water hammer
5. Gas-liquid flows: Gravity and surface tension effects; Pressure traverse in producing wells
6. Flow in porous media: Darcy flow; non-Darcy flow; Ergun equation; Compressible flow
7. Heat and mass transfer: Conduction and convection; Steady state and unsteady state
8. Heat exchangers
9. Analogies and differential models

Textbook Required: Noel de Nevers: Fluid Mechanics for Chemical Engineers, McGraw-Hill. 2004

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 2

 CHAPTER 3
THE BALANCE EQUATION AND THE MASS BALANCE
Much of engineering is simply careful accounting of things other than money. The accountings are called mass balances, energy
balances, component balances, momentum balances, etc. In this chapter we examine the basic idea of a balance and then apply it to
mass. The result is the mass balance, or principle of conservation of mass, or continuity equation.

3.2 THE MASS BALANCE

Let us consider the most important engineering balance, the mass balance. Mass obeys the general balance equation: the
creation and destruction terms are zero. Thus, the mass balance is

The careful application of this equation is necessary to most fluid-mechanics problems. Naturally we can divide by time and find

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 3

Example 3.1. Consider the simple pot-bellied stove, burning natural gas, shown in Fig. 3.1. Applying Eq. 3.6 to this stove, we
choose as our system boundaries the walls of the stove.

Then Eq. 3.6 becomes

Here we have two mass-flow-in terms. There is no limit to the

number of such terms. we add the individual mass-flow-in terms
to get the total mass-flow-in term

The mass balance has several other names, which are in wide use: principle of conservation of mass, continuity equation,
continuity principle, and material balance. They all mean exactly the same thing as mass balance, namely, that mass obeys
the general balance equation, with no creation or destruction.

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 4

3.3 STEADY-STATE BALANCES
When the pot-bellied stove in Fig. 3.1 is first lighted after being turned off for a long time, the temperature of its various parts
changes rapidly. After a certain time it is warmed up, and thereafter the temperature of the various parts does not change with
time. During the warm-up period, the velocities and temperatures of the gases passing through it at some fixed point change
with time. For example, a thermometer at some point in the flue registers a continually increasing temperature. After the stove
has warmed up, this thermometer will register a constant temperature. When the stove has warmed up and is running steadily,
we speak of it as being at steady state.
A steady state does not mean that nothing is changing; it means that nothing is changing with respect to time. Consider a
waterfall with a steady flow over it. From the standpoint of a particle of water, there is a rapid increase in velocity as it falls and
then a sudden decrease in velocity at the bottom. From the standpoint of an observer watching one specific point in space, the
waterfall is always the same: There is always water going by at a fixed velocity. Mathematically, if velocity V is some function
of time and position

then at steady state

Similarly we can write for steady state that

of any measurable property of the system at any point is zero. Thus, if we write the balance equation for some measurable
quantity such as mass and divide by dt to find the rate form, then the left-hand side (the time rate of mass increase within the
system) must be zero, because at every point in the system the mass contained is not changing with time.

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 5

Returning now to the pot-bellied stove of Example 3.1, we see that if we consider the stove's steady-state behavior, the mass balance
simplifies to

This is the familiar "flow in equals flow out" idea, which is true only for steady state, with no creation or destruction.

Example 3.2. For the pot-bellied stove of Example 3.1 we now make a steady-state carbon dioxide balance. By chemical analysis
we find that the amount of carbon dioxide in the natural gas and in the air is small enough to ignore; so, omitting the unnecessary
terms from Eq. 3.2, we find
General balance equation for some time period

Chemical analysis of the exhaust gas indicates that it contains considerable carbon dioxide, so the mass flow rate out is not
negligible. Thus, for this equation to be satisfied, there must be significant creation minus destruction of carbon dioxide in the
stove; i.e., carbon dioxide is formed by combustion in the stove. In this case, the destruction term is negligible

If we made a similar balance for natural gas, the destruction term would be approximately equal to the mass-flow-in term. In the
field of chemical reactions, the creation and destruction terms are very important and cannot be ignored.

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 6

3.4 THE STEADY-STATE FLOW, ONE-DIMENSIONAL MASS BALANCE

Consider the steady-state flow of some fluid in a pipe of varying cross section (see
Fig. 3.2). If we apply the steady-state mass balance equation to the system shown,
we find
Mass flow in at point 1= mass flow out a point 2

In general, the velocity is not the same at every point in a cross section of pipe; it is faster near the center than at the walls.
Therefore, to calculate the total flow in across the system boundaries at point 1, we break up the area across which the flow
is entering into small subareas A, over each of which the flow is practically uniform:

Here the individual elements of area must be taken perpendicular to the local flow velocity. For flow in a pipe or channel this is
no problem, because the flow is all in one direction, and the area we normally consider is one perpendicular to the flow. If we
take the limit as each subarea becomes infinitely small, the term on the right becomes the integral, over the entire system
boundary at point 1, of V dA. Therefore, the steady-state mass balance for the system in Fig. 3.2 is

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 7

But we could choose points 1 and 2 to be any locations in the pipe, so for steady-state flow in a pipe or channel this equation
becomes

In most industrial flows in pipes or channels, the velocity is practically constant across the entire cross section of the pipe or
channel (except in a very thin layer near the pipe or channel wall). The density and velocity of these flows may be considered
constant across the cross section, and then the integrations in Eqs. 3.13 and 3.14 can be easily performed, giving

The mass crossing the boundary per unit time is called the mass flow rate. Normally it is measured in kilograms per second or
pounds-mass per second and given the symbol

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 8

Example 3.3. In a natural-gas pipeline at station 1, the pipe diameter is 2 ft, and the flow conditions are 800 psia, 70F, and 50 ft/s
velocity. At station 2, the pipe diameter is 3 ft, and the flow conditions are 500 psia and 70F. What is the velocity at station 2?
What is the mass flow rate?

Solving Eq. 3.15 for V2 we find

Start from here
The density of natural gas (principally methane) at 800 psia and 70F is approximately 2.44 lbm/ft 3, and at 500 psia and
70F it is approximately 1.49 lbm/ft3. Therefore,

For liquids at temperatures well below their critical temperature, the changes in density with moderate temperature and pressure
changes are small. Therefore, for liquids we can divide the density out of Eq. 3.15, finding

Mass divided by density equals volume; therefore the constant in this equation(the mass flow rate divided by the density) is the
volumetric flow rate, usually measured in cubic feet per second or cubic meters per second and given the symbol Q!

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 9

Example 3.4. Water is flowing in a pipe. At point 1, the inside diameter is 0.25 m, and the velocity is 2 m/s. What are
the mass flow rate and the volumetric flow rate? What is the velocity at point 2, where the inside diameter is 0.125 m?

3.5 UNSTEADY-STATE MASS BALANCES

The steady-state behavior of systems, shown in the
preceding examples, is very important. Most of the
examples and problems in elementary textbooks
concern steady-state behavior. However, unsteady-
state behavior is also important, perhaps more
important. The characteristics of the two types of
system are compared in Table 3.1.
Unsteady-mass mass balances do not introduce any
ideas beyond those seen so far. However, as shown
by the following two examples, they generally lead
to more complicated mathematics.

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 10

Example 3.5. The microchip diffusion furnace in Fig. 3.3 contains air, which may be considered an ideal gas. The vacuum pump is
pumping air out prior to beginning the thermal diffusion step. During the pump-out process, the heating coils in the tank hold the
temperature in the tank constant at 70F. The volumetric flow rate at the inlet of the pump, independent of pressure, is 1.0
ft3/min. How long does it take the pressure to fall from 1 to 0.0001 atm?

We choose as our system the tank up to the pump inlet. For this system the mass balance gives

But we know that

where Vsys is the volume of the system, which does not change. Thus,

Furthermore,

But Qout is constant and

So that This is a separable, first-order differential

equation, which can be rearranged to
17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 11
and integrated from initial to final states, yielding

For low-pressure gases at constant temperature, the densities are proportional to the pressures, so we can solve for the required
time:

In many unsteady-state mass balance problems, it is convenient to take as the system the fluid in some container. Thus, as the
mass of fluid increases or decreases, the volume of the system changes.
Example 3.6. A cylindrical tank 3 m in diameter, with vertical axis, has an inflow line of 0.1-m inside diameter and an outflow
line of 0.2-m inside diameter. Water is flowing in the inflow line at a velocity of 2 m/s and leaving by the outflow line at a
velocity of 1 m/s. Is the level in the tank rising or falling? How fast?
Here we take as our system the instantaneous mass of water in the tank. For this system

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 12

 For any fluid we have m = V and = Q. Substituting these equation and canceling the density, which is constant, we find

The volumetric flow in or out is equal to VA, so

The volume of liquid in the tank is decreasing, and the level is falling. The rate of decrease in volume is equal to the cross-
sectional area times the rate of fall in the level:

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 13

3.6 MASS BALANCES FOR MIXTURES

In the preceding examples, the flowing materials have been uniform single species, e.g., air or water. In most of the rest of this
book we deal with such uniform single species. However, in many problems of great interest two or more components mix inside
the system. If we make the simplest possible mixing assumptionperfect mixing of all componentsthen we can apply the
simple balance equation as before and find useful answers. The perfect mixing assumption is obviously a great simplification of
what must occur in nature, but it is often used because the results are so simple and useful. Two examples illustrate the idea.

Example 3.7. Figure 3.4 is a sketch of a rectangular city with length L

and width W. The wind blows over the city in the x direction with
velocity V. Atmospheric turbulence mixes the air over the city up to height
H, so we may assume that the air in the "box" with dimensions L times W
times H is well mixed and has the same pollutant concentration c
everywhere. The air flowing into the upwind side of the city has pollutant
concentration b (which stands for background concentration). The city
emits pollutants into the atmosphere uniformly over its surface with an
emission rate q. [Here q will have units like kg/(m2 s). This uniform-
emission assumption is a fair one for emissions from automobiles or small
industry which are more or less uniformly spread over the city, but is a
very poor one for emissions from a single large factory or power plant;
such emissions are treated a very different way in air pollutant regulation.]
What is the concentration of pollutant in the air over the city, in terms of q,
V, W, L, and H?
17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 14
Here we make the steady-state assumption that the concentration is not changing with time, so the algebraic sum of the flow of
pollutant in and out must be zero:

0 = flow rate of pollutant into city air from upwind

+ flow rate of pollutant into city air from city
flow rate of pollutant out of city air at downwind edge of city (3.27)

The pollutant flow rates are expressed as concentrations (e.g., kilograms per cubic meter) times volumetric flow rates (e.g., cubic
meters per second), so

Equation 3.28 says that the pollutant concentration in the city is equal to that in the air entering the city (the background
concentration) plus a term [qL/(VH)] which indicates how much the pollutant concentration has been increased by the
emissions from the city itself. This is the "box model" or "proportional" or "rollback" equation, which has played a very
important role in the formulation of air pollution regulations in the United States [2].

Example 3.8. Our paint shop will use a special paint that has benzene as a solvent. In the course of an 8-h day, the paint
evaporates 200 kg (4401b) of benzene (q = 200 kg/8 h). The shop dimensions are 10 m x 4 m x 4 m. To protect the health of our
workers, we must limit the concentration of benzene in the shop air to less than or equal to the industrial hygiene standard for
benzene, which is 30 mg/m3. If we wish to keep the concentration c of benzene in the shop at or below this permitted
concentration, how large a flow of ventilating air must we supply?
17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 15
This is very similar to Example 3.7. Here we assume that the benzene is well mixed into the air in the shop and that the air leaving
the shop will have the permitted benzene concentration. Making a steady-state benzene balance on the shop, taking the inlet
airflow as Q, we get
0 = benzene in inlet air + benzene evaporated by the paint benzene in exit air

Now we observe that there

is no benzene in the
incoming air (b = 0), so we
can solve for Q:

This example shows that, for the assumption of perfect mixing of benzene into the shop air, it is quite straightforward to
compute the required dilution air to meet the industrial hygiene standard. We also see that this is an impossibly large airflow
rate. If we divide the above flow rate by the cross-sectional area of the shop (4 m x 4 m), we find

This is a very high velocity, which could hardly be used inside a paint shop. Our practical alternatives are to choose a less
toxic solvent, for which the permitted concentration is higher, or to devise some kind of ventilation system, such as a laboratory
fume hood, which will prevent the mixing of the benzene with the air that workers breathe.

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 16

 3.7 MASS BALANCES FOR MULTIDIMENSIONAL FLOWS

The foregoing mass balances were for a small number of flows in and out. Obviously, the same idea can be readily applied to a
much larger number of flows in and out. One equation often used in theoretical fluid mechanics (see Chap. 10) is the mass
balance equation for an arbitrary point in space. We find this equation by defining the coordinates and components of the local
fluid velocity, as shown in Fig. 3.5. Our system is a small open-faced cube.

The mass balance for this system in rate form is

The mass in the system at any instant is . The flow

into the system through face 1 is

and the flow out of the system through face 2 is

Writing the analogous terms for faces 3, 4, 5, and 6 and inserting all in Eq. 3.31, we find

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 17

Now we let , , and each approach zero simultaneously, so that the cube shrinks to a point. Taking the limit of the three
ratios on the right-hand side of this equation, we find the partial derivatives

If the density is constant or the density changes are small

enough to be neglected, this simplifies to

By letting , , and approach zero we have shrunk the system to a single point. Thus Eq. 3.36 is the mass balance for
any point in space; it is often called the general continuity equation: Equation 3.37 is the mass balance for any point in space
which contains a constant-density fluid.

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 18

3.8 SUMMARY

Balances are important in engineering.

All balances can be made from the general balance equation (accumulation = creation - destruction + flow in - flow out) by
dropping the unnecessary terms.
All balances can be divided by time to make rate equations.

In any balance it is necessary to choose and state the boundaries over which the balance is made. Whatever is inside the
boundaries over which the balance is made is called the system. Whatever is outside is called the surroundings

17/02/2017 Dr. ARKAN JASIM HADI 19