Experimental and numerical modeling of the thermal conductivity of high-viscosity hydrocarbon systems

A mathematical model is developed to numerically predict the heating of heavy hydrocarbon systems. A comparative analysis of numerical and experimental data is performed. It is found that the thermal conductivity of a hydrocarbon system under study heated from an initial temperature of 24$^\circ$C to 100$^\circ$C increases by a factor of 40 and, with allowance for free convection, an additional substantial (up to 16 times) increase in heat transfer due to enhanced effective thermal conductivity is observed.