Patent ID: 7437247

Claim:
A method of estimating the flow restart conditions of a paraffinic hydrocarbon in a pipe, wherein the following stages are carried out: a) selecting a rheological model suited to the nature of the paraffinic hydrocarbon, b) determining the temperature and shear stress fields in the steady hydrocarbon flow, along the axis of the pipe, c) evaluating the conductive thermal exchanges during circulation standstills, from the steady flow temperatures and the standstill times taken into account, d) selecting various sections of the pipe and recording the thermomechanical scenarios undergone by the hydrocarbon in these sections, said scenarios including the initial and final temperatures, the cooling rate and the shear rate under steady circulation, e) experimentally measuring the rheological parameters of said model on a sample of said hydrocarbon, according to each one of said scenarios, and f) taking into account said experimental measurements to evaluate the value of the pressure that restarts circulation of the paraffinic hydrocarbon in the pipe.