Title: Selecting best painting colour for crude oil storage tanks exterior surface

Authors: Mahmood Farzaneh-Gord; Amin Nabati; Morteza Saadat-Targhi; Alireza Rasekh; Hamid Niazmand

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran ' Mechanical Engineering Department, Esfarayen University of Technology, Esfarayen, North Khorasan, Iran ' Mechanical Engineering Department, Esfarayen University of Technology, Esfarayen, North Khorasan, Iran ' The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran ' Mechanical Engineering Department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract: The crude oil temperature, which highly influenced by solar heat and ambient temperature, has strong effects on the sludge formation and evaporative loss. Here, a numerical method has been presented for predicting the transient average crude oil temperature in storage tanks and the evaporative losses. Results show that the annual evaporative losses rise up to 125% if the tank exterior surface absorptivity is increased as 90% of the solar irradiation is absorbed. It was found that, the sludge height is reduced about 50 mm per months, when the absorptivity of the tank exterior surface is increased from á = 0.1 to á = 0.9 during winter. Considering the opposing effect of the in-tank crude oil temperature on the evaporative losses and sludge formation, the optimum absorptivity of the tank paint could be determined according to the minimal point in the summation curve of both losses. [Received: November 16, 2017; Accepted: May 16, 2018]

Keywords: crude oil storage tank; crude oil; sludge build up; exterior surface paint colour; evaporation loss.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2020.106148

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2020 Vol.23 No.4, pp.518 - 539

Received: 16 Nov 2017
Accepted: 16 May 2018
Published online: 01 Apr 2020 *

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