A SIMPLE EQUATION FOR PREDICTING THE VISCOSITY OF CRUDE-OIL FRACTIONS

An approach is described and used to develop a generalized predictive equation for the effect of temperature on the kinematic viscosity of c rude oil fractions. The use of this simple method for another crude oi l fraction does not require any viscosity measurement; it only require s the mean boiling temperature of the crude oil fraction to predict th e single parameter in the viscosity-temperature equation, based on the two-parameter Walther's viscosity correlation. The approach is illust rated and validated with viscosity data reported in the literature for sixteen crude oil fractions, which are matched with an average deviat ion of 2.5%.