Improved High Pressure Capillary Tube Viscometer

Abstract
Published in Petroleum Transactions, AIME, Volume 216, 1959, pages 85–91. Abstract An apparatus and a procedure for determining the viscosity behavior of hydrocarbons at pressures up to 10,000 psia and temperatures between 77 and 400°F are described. The equipment is suitable for measuring viscosity of either the liquid or vapor phases or the fluid above the two-phase envelope for systems exhibiting retrograde phenomena, according to the phase state of the system within these ranges of temperature and pressure. Equations are developed for calculation of viscosity from the experimental measurements, and new data for the viscosities of ethane and propane at 77°F are reported. Introduction With the advent of higher pressures and temperatures in industrial processes and deep petroleum and natural gas reservoirs, demand has increased for accurate values of physical properties of hydrocarbons under these conditions. Proportionately, more frequent occurrence of natural gas and condensate-type fluids is encountered as fluid hydrocarbons are discovered at greater depths. This increases the importance, to the reservoir engineer, of being able to predict accurately the physical properties of light hydrocarbon systems in the dense-gas and light-liquid phase states. Reliable gas viscosity data are limited primarily to measurements made on pure components near ambient temperature and at low pressures. Few investigations have been reported for high pressures, and except for methane, data on light hydrocarbons are subject to question. This is demonstrated by the large discrepancy between sets of data on the same component reported by different investigators. For mixtures in the dense gas and light liquid regions and for fluids exhibiting retrograde behavior there are very few published experimental data. Viscosity data for methane have been reported by Bicher and Katz, Sage and Lacey, Comings, et al, Golubev, and Carr, with good agreement among the last three sets of data. Comings, Golubev and Carr utilized capillary tube instruments for which the theory of fluid flow is well established. The theory permits calculation of the viscosity directly from the experimental data and dimensions of the instrument alone.