Physics Extended Essay

How does the Reynolds Number affect the

fluidity of the petroleum?
Introduction:
I have seen how some countries are the main producers of crude oil and some buy the
crude oil. I have also seen and heard of the extensive pipelines that run across states and
countries to deliver the petroleum effectively and efficiently to the refineries. This intrigued
me and I wanted to find out how the petroleum is delivered. This led to me researching
about the Reynolds number and how it helps deliver the crude oil effectively.
Petroleum or crude oil is very important for us. In today’s world, many things are operated
with the help of crude oil. Petroleum is used for transport, machines and even daily uses.
The products obtained from the fractional distillation of petroleum also have many uses; the
fraction kerosene is used as fuel, the fraction naphtha is used to make roads, diesel and
petrol for vehicle fuel. As shown in the picture, the different fractions have different uses.

Because of the large number of uses of crude oil, it is imperative that it is transported
effectively and efficient and it is very important to find an effective method of
transportation of crude oil. Oil is transported by four methods; tankers, pipelines, ships and
rail. Ships is a cheaper option and can carry a lot of oil, but have environmental concerns like
destruction of marine life if there are oil spills and it is also a very slow method of
transportation. Railways are also a good method of transportation but are also inefficient as
many of them is needed to transport the same amount of oil as a ship. Trucks also have the
same problem, even though they are faster methods of transportation. Pipelines are the
best form of transportation as they consume much lesser energy than the other forms of oil
transportation and also have a low carbon footprint. Therefore, I will be focusing on how the
crude oil is transported in the pipelines using the Reynolds number.

Background Information:
Fluids are substances that have no fixed shape and can be changed and manipulated easily
with external pressure. The flow of the fluid in a cylindrical pipe is determined with the help
of the Reynolds number and it is important in the transport of petroleum as it can help
determine the right velocity of transport of the Petroleum for maximum efficiency. The
Reynolds number is the ratio of the inertial forces and the viscosity forces on a surface and it
explains when the flow is laminar and when the flow is turbulent when flowing in a circular
tube. The Reynolds number is affected mainly by density and viscosity.
 Viscosity:
Viscocity is the thickness of the liquid. It is caused by the interaction of the molecules in a
fluid. This is because as the particles in a fluid slide over each other, they have a frictional
force between them. Therefore, some energy is used to overcome these forces of friction
and flow. This energy required is measured by viscosity. Fluids that have no viscosity are
called ideal fluids and it does not exist. All fluids have some viscosity, only that some are
lesser. The ratio of the the horizontal force applied to keep the upper plate at rest and
surface area of the plate gives the shear stress, which is proportional to the velocity of the
plate. The equation below shows the newton’s law of viscosity.
𝑑𝑢𝑥
Shear stress= 𝜏𝑦,𝑥 = −𝜇 𝑑𝑦
The subscript under 𝜏 , the shear stress denotes the area on which the shear stress is acting
on an xy plane. The subscript in du denotes the direction of the shear stress. In this case, the
direction of velocity, 𝑥.

Newton’s law of viscosity states that the shear stress between adjacent fluid layers is
proportional to the negative value of the velocity gradient between the two layers.

This is important as it affects the viscous force, which in turn affects the Reynolds Number
and the flow of petroleum in the pipe.

Density:
Density is the mass per unit volume and the symbol used for it is 𝜌 or rho. Density
determines whether a solid will float or sink and it depends on whether the liquid is denser
than the solid body. The density depends on the volume concentrated in a certain mass. This
means, two bodies can be of same weight, but one might still feel heavier than the other
object. The density can be affected by temperature and pressure. This affects gases more
than solids or liquids as they can be pressurized easily and they expand more upon heating.
The density affects the Reynolds number as the denser a substance is, the more packed
together the molecules are, and the resistance given to the flow is more, increasing the
inertial forces.

Reynolds number:
Reynolds number is represented by 𝑅𝑒 and the formula is the inertial forces divided by the
viscosity forces.

𝐼𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝜌𝑣𝑙

𝑅𝑒 = 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑠
= 𝜇
Where, 𝜌 is the density, 𝜇 is the viscosity and 𝑙 is the length in the
direction of flow.

Reynolds number affects the flow of the liquid in the pipe. There are three types of flow; laminar
flow, turbulent flow and transient flow. There is laminar flow in the pipe when the Reynolds number
is below 2300. This means that the liquid flows very smoothly in the pipe in a straight line, without
any disturbances. But, when the Reynolds number is more than 4000, the flow is turbulent and it has
a lot of disturbances and the liquid in the pipe does not flow straight.
As seen in the picture above, (a) shows laminar flow and the flow of the particles of the fluid is
restricted to a parallel motion and they flow in straight paths. But, in (b), the path is fluctuating and
is very irregular.

When the Reynolds number is between 2300 and 4000, the liquid is in the state of Transitional flow,
and this means that the flow has both turbulent flow and laminar flow. In this type of flow, it is
turbulent at the center and laminar towards the edges.