Design and Operation of Laboratory Combustion Tubes

Experimental work on the combustion oil-recovery process has consisted of both laboratory and field studies. Although field experiments are the ultimate test of any oil recovery process, they are costly, time consuming, and difficult to analyze quantitatively. Laboratory combustion tube experiments can be operated far more rapidly and cheaply, but are subject to scaling and interpretation problems. Although much has been published on results of laboratory combustion tube experiments, very little detail concerning equipment design, operation, and analysis of results is available. An analytical heat model of movement of a burning fron axially along a cylinder with heat loss through an annular insulation was developed. The result was used to identify steady-state temperature distributions both ahead of and behind the burning front, with and without heat loss from the equipment. (16 refs.)