Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Developments ISSN: 1024-1752 CODEN: JERDFO Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 41-49 Published Year 2020 41 Investigation of Flow Behavior Characteristics for Iraqi Crude Oil with Different Polymeric Additives Auda J. Braihi 1 , Farhan Lafta Rashid 2 , Akram Jassim Jawad 1 University of Babylon, College of Materials Engineering 1 Kerbala, Petroleum Engineering Department University of 2 *Corresponding Author Email: auda_1964@yahoo.com, engfarhan71@gmail.com, akrammaterials4@gmail.com ABSTRACT: In this work, the flow behavior characteristics for Iraqi crude oil using different polymer additives were investigated. Polyacrylic acid (PPA) was added to the crude oil at different concentrations of (0, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 ppm) and Polyethylene glycol (PEG) at different concentrations of (0, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 ppm). Results showed that PPA additions decreases largely the viscosities of the crude oil, and this dropping depends on the DRA concentration in the crude oil. Crude oil viscosity seems to be increases as the PEG concentration raised, increases with increasing shear rate, except with 400 wt.% of PEG. The shear stress increases as the shear rate increased, and its minimum value occurs at 300 wt.% of PEG. Density of crude oil increases with increasing the additives concentrations, both PPA and PEG. The value of surface tension was reduced gradually till to concentration of 200 ppm of PPA and sudden decrease after that. While adding PEG lead to increase the surface tension till to the concentration of 300 ppm and then reduced. KEYWORDS: Flow Characteristic, Drag Reduction Agents, PEG, PAA, Surface Tension, Surfactants. INTRODUCTION Because of their huge effects on the rheological characteristics at the surface as well as the interface, surfactants are used excessively in many industrial applications, such as petroleum recovery, oil-well drilling, reservoir injection, petroleum pipeline and transportation and emulsions. Surfactant have an outstanding behavior due to the presence of a hydrophilic head group and a hydrophobic chain (or tail) in its molecule [1-3]. Small amounts of certain additives, can reduces the friction, which resists the flow of liquids in turbulent flow pattern. This phenomenon called drag reduction and these additives named Drag Reduction Agents (DRA). Usually, this accompanied by reduction in the pressure drop along the pipe length, as well as decreasing the required energy to transport the liquid to another location [4]. Surfactants have the ability to reform themselves in very short time (few seconds) during degradation of shear. This property allows to the surfactants to be the suitable candidate in fluid recirculation systems [5]. Up to now, the mechanisms by which DRA works are not understand. They may inhibit the formation of microscopic eddies in the liquid during different flow patterns, such as turbulent flue, laminar flue with high Reynolds number (Re) and in fully developed turbulent flue [6, 7]. Farhan et al. employed a Drag Reducing Agent (DRA) to decrease the drag of Iraqi crude oil using Poly Acrylic Acid (PAA) at different concentrations, they found that the DRA reduces the crude oil viscosity [8, 9]. The main purpose of the current work is to monitoring the effect of using different polymeric additives on the flow manner properties of the crude oil. MATERIALS AND METHODS Crude Oil Iraqi crude oil was used in this work as a flowing liquid, which is supplied by Al-Najaf refinery–Iraq, with the following properties: viscosity equal to 27.55 cP and specific gravity equal to 0.89 (both at 25 o C).