Batch sedimentation in an impulsively heated system

Steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) has become the standard for separating heavy oil from tar sands. The separation process requires massive amount of heat to reduce the viscosity of the suspending fluid thereby increasing sedimentation rates of the solid component. The goal of this paper is to provide analytical data generated by both experiments and theoretical studies for the effects of initial particle concentration and impulsive heating temperature on mass and energy transport in a model heavy oil-sand suspension. Experiments are performed using a viscous-suspending liquid of kinematic viscosity ν = 1000 cSt with particle concentrations ϕ 0 = 0.20 , 0.40 and 0.50 (volume/volume), and temperature range 100 ° C < T plate < 250 ° C . CCD imaging is used to observe and study the settling phenomenon. Numerical simulations are performed to model thermal behavior in the highest concentration limits, where one concentration front is observed. For this regime the system of equations contains a concentration model that does not include concentration gradients, which is a departure from the classic Kynch theory for low ϕ 0 (Kynch, 1952). The experiments and computational results are in good agreement for a large ϕ 0 suggesting that our simplified concentration model may be appropriate for impulsively heated high concentration sedimentation studies that are relevant to SAGD.