Microfluidic method of viscosity measurement in propane-saturated bitumen

Paper presented at 2018 Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers International Congress, 27-30 May 2018.In this paper, the viscosity propane-saturated bitumen was measured through a microfluidic chip. Property measurement of propane-saturated bitumen has been traditionally done on a heavy-duty PVT cell, and the application of microfluidics in high temperature and pressure conditions to measure the properties of bitumen is a novel technique. There are two steps in the viscosity measurement of propane-saturated bitumen. First, the propane saturated bitumen is prepared in a high-pressure piston cylinder through propane injection in bitumen at a pressure above its saturation pressure. This propane-bitumen sample is left to saturate till it there is no further pressure drop. Then the propane-saturated bitumen is pushed through the microfluidic chip and the viscosity of the bitumen is measured by the pressure differences and the imaging of the fluid end, as an application of the Poiseuille’s law