25 resultados para Relativistic viscous hydrodynamics
em Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte(UFRN)
Resumo:
The northeastern region of Brazil has a large number of wells producing oil using a method of secondary recovery steam injection, since the oil produced in this region is essentially viscous. This recovery method puts the cement / coating on thermal cycling, due to the difference in coefficient of thermal expansion between cement and metal coating causes the appearance of cracks at this interface, allowing the passage of the annular fluid, which is associated with serious risk socioeconomic and environmental. In view of these cracks, a correction operation is required, resulting in more costs and temporary halt of production of the well. Alternatively, the oil industry has developed technology for adding new materials in cement pastes, oil well, providing high ductility and low density in order to withstand the thermo-mechanical loads generated by the injection of water vapor. In this context, vermiculite, a clay mineral found in abundance in Brazil has been applied in its expanded form in the construction industry for the manufacture of lightweight concrete with excellent insulation and noise due to its high melting point and the presence of air in their layers lamellar. Therefore, the vermiculite is used for the purpose of providing low-density cement paste and withstand high temperatures caused by steam injection. Thus, the present study compared the default folder containing cement and water with the folders with 6%, 8% and 10% vermiculite micron conducting tests of free water, rheology and compressive strength where it obtained the concentration of 8 % with the best results. Subsequently, the selected concentration, was compared with the results recommended by the API standard tests of filtered and stability. And finally, analyzed the results from tests of specific gravity and time of thickening. Before the study we were able to make a folder with a low density that can be used in cementing oil well in order to withstand the thermo-mechanical loads generated by steam injection
Resumo:
The Potiguar basin has large fields of viscous oil where the used method for recovering is based on vapor injection; this operation is carried out by injecting vapor in the oilwell directly, without the protection of a revetment through thermal insulation, what causes its dilation and, consequently, cracks in the cement placed on the annular, and lost of hydraulic insulation; this crack is occasioned by the phenomenon of retrogression of the compressive resistance due to the conversion of the hydrated calcium silicate in phases calcium-rich, caused by the high temperatures in the wells, subjected to thermal recuperation. This work has evaluated the application of composite pastes with addition of residue of biomass of ground sugar-cane bagasse as anti-retrogression mineral admixture for cementation of oil-wells subjected to thermal recuperation. The addition of the mineral residue was carried out considering a relative amount of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 59% in relation to cement mass, trying to improve the microstructure of the paste, still being developed a reference paste only with cement and a paste with addition of 40% of silica flour - renowned material in the oil industry as anti-retrogression additive. Pozzolanic activity of the ash was evaluated through XRD, TG/DTG, as the resistance to compression, and it was also determined the physical and mechanical behavior of the pastes when submitted to cure at low temperatures (22 and 38º C); besides it was evaluated the behavior of the pastes when submitted to two cycles of cure at high temperature (280ºC) and pressure (7 MPa). It was verified that the ash of the sugar-cane biomass presents pozzolanic reaction and has great efficiency in decrease the permeability of the paste by filler effect, as well as that addition of ash in a relative amount of 10, 20 e 30% increases cured compressive resistance at low temperatures. It was also showed that the ash in a relative amount of 40% and 59% has very significant efficiency as anti-retrogression additive, since it prevents the decrease of compressive resistance and forms hydrated calcium silicate type xenotlita and tobermorita which have more resistance and stability in high temperatures
Resumo:
Steam injection is the most used method of additional recovery for the extraction of heavy oil. In this type procedure is common to happen gravitational segregation and this phenomenon can affect the production of oil and therefore, it shoulds be considered in the projects of continuous steam injection. For many years, the gravitational segregation was not adequately considered in the calculation procedures in Reservoir Engineering. The effect of the gravity causes the segregation of fluids inside the porous media according to their densities. The results of simulation arising from reservoirs could provide the ability to deal with the gravity, and it became apparent that the effects of the gravity could significantly affect the performance of the reservoir. It know that the gravitational segregation can happen in almost every case where there is injection of light fluid, specially the steam, and occurs with greater intensity for viscous oil reservoirs. This work discusses the influence of some parameters of the rock-reservoir in segregation as viscosity, permeability, thickness, cover gas, porosity. From a model that shows the phenomenon with greater intensity, optimized some operational parameters as the rate flow rate steam, distance between the wells injector-producer, and interval of completion which contributed to the reduction in gravity override, thus increasing the oil recovery. It was shown a greater technical-economic viability for the model of distance between the wells 100 m. The analysis was performed using the simulator of CMG (Computer Modeling Group-Stars 2007.11, in which was observed by iterating between studied variables in heavy oil reservoirs with similar characteristics to Brazilian Northeast
Resumo:
Increase hydrocarbons production is the main goal of the oilwell industry worldwide. Hydraulic fracturing is often applied to achieve this goal due to a combination of attractive aspects including easiness and low operational costs associated with fast and highly economical response. Conventional fracturing usually involves high-flowing high-pressure pumping of a viscous fluid responsible for opening the fracture in the hydrocarbon producing rock. The thickness of the fracture should be enough to assure the penetration of the particles of a solid proppant into the rock. The proppant is driven into the target formation by a carrier fluid. After pumping, all fluids are filtered through the faces of the fracture and penetrate the rock. The proppant remains in the fracture holding it open and assuring high hydraulic conductivity. The present study proposes a different approach for hydraulic fracturing. Fractures with infinity conductivity are formed and used to further improve the production of highly permeable formations as well as to produce long fractures in naturally fractured formations. Naturally open fractures with infinite conductivity are usually encountered. They can be observed in rock outcrops and core plugs, or noticed by the total loss of circulation during drilling (even with low density fluids), image profiles, pumping tests (Mini-Frac and Mini Fall Off), and injection tests below fracturing pressure, whose flow is higher than expected for radial Darcian ones. Naturally occurring fractures are kept open by randomly shaped and placed supporting points, able to hold the faces of the fracture separate even under typical closing pressures. The approach presented herein generates infinite conductivity canal held open by artificially created parallel supporting areas positioned both horizontally and vertically. The size of these areas is designed to hold the permeable zones open supported by the impermeable areas. The England & Green equation was used to theoretically prove that the fracture can be held open by such artificially created set of horizontal parallel supporting areas. To assess the benefits of fractures characterized by infinite conductivity, an overall comparison with finite conductivity fractures was carried out using a series of parameters including fracture pressure loss and dimensionless conductivity as a function of flow production, FOI folds of increase, flow production and cumulative production as a function of time, and finally plots of net present value and productivity index
Resumo:
The present study provides a methodology that gives a predictive character the computer simulations based on detailed models of the geometry of a porous medium. We using the software FLUENT to investigate the flow of a viscous Newtonian fluid through a random fractal medium which simplifies a two-dimensional disordered porous medium representing a petroleum reservoir. This fractal model is formed by obstacles of various sizes, whose size distribution function follows a power law where exponent is defined as the fractal dimension of fractionation Dff of the model characterizing the process of fragmentation these obstacles. They are randomly disposed in a rectangular channel. The modeling process incorporates modern concepts, scaling laws, to analyze the influence of heterogeneity found in the fields of the porosity and of the permeability in such a way as to characterize the medium in terms of their fractal properties. This procedure allows numerically analyze the measurements of permeability k and the drag coefficient Cd proposed relationships, like power law, for these properties on various modeling schemes. The purpose of this research is to study the variability provided by these heterogeneities where the velocity field and other details of viscous fluid dynamics are obtained by solving numerically the continuity and Navier-Stokes equations at pore level and observe how the fractal dimension of fractionation of the model can affect their hydrodynamic properties. This study were considered two classes of models, models with constant porosity, MPC, and models with varying porosity, MPV. The results have allowed us to find numerical relationship between the permeability, drag coefficient and the fractal dimension of fractionation of the medium. Based on these numerical results we have proposed scaling relations and algebraic expressions involving the relevant parameters of the phenomenon. In this study analytical equations were determined for Dff depending on the geometrical parameters of the models. We also found a relation between the permeability and the drag coefficient which is inversely proportional to one another. As for the difference in behavior it is most striking in the classes of models MPV. That is, the fact that the porosity vary in these models is an additional factor that plays a significant role in flow analysis. Finally, the results proved satisfactory and consistent, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the referred methodology for all applications analyzed in this study.
Resumo:
Steam injection is a method usually applied to very viscous oils and consists of injecting heat to reduce the viscosity and, therefore, increase the oil mobility, improving the oil production. For designing a steam injection project it is necessary to have a reservoir simulation in order to define the various parameters necessary for an efficient heat reservoir management, and with this, improve the recovery factor of the reservoir. The purpose of this work is to show the influence of the coupled wellbore/reservoir on the thermal simulation of reservoirs under cyclic steam stimulation. In this study, the methodology used in the solution of the problem involved the development of a wellbore model for the integration of steam flow model in injection wellbores, VapMec, and a blackoil reservoir model for the injection of cyclic steam in oil reservoirs. Thus, case studies were developed for shallow and deep reservoirs, whereas the usual configurations of injector well existing in the oil industry, i.e., conventional tubing without packer, conventional tubing with packer and insulated tubing with packer. A comparative study of the injection and production parameters was performed, always considering the same operational conditions, for the two simulation models, non-coupled and a coupled model. It was observed that the results are very similar for the specified well injection rate, whereas significant differences for the specified well pressure. Finally, on the basis of computational experiments, it was concluded that the influence of the coupled wellbore/reservoir in thermal simulations using cyclic steam injection as an enhanced oil recovery method is greater for the specified well pressure, while for the specified well injection rate, the steam flow model for the injector well and the reservoir may be simulated in a non- coupled way
Resumo:
The use of Progressing Cavity Pumps (PCPs) in artificial lift applications in low deep wells is becoming more common in the oil industry, mainly, due to its ability to pump heavy oils, produce oil with large concentrations of sand, besides present high efficiency when compared to other artificial lift methods. Although this system has been widely used as an oil lift method, few investigations about its hydrodynamic behavior are presented, either experimental or numeric. Therefore, in order to increase the knowledge about the BCP operational behavior, this work presents a novel computational model for the 3-D transient flow in progressing cavity pumps, which includes the relative motion between rotor and stator, using an element based finite volume method. The model developed is able to accurately predict the volumetric efficiency and viscous looses as well as to provide detailed information of pressure and velocity fields inside the pump. In order to predict PCP performance for low viscosity fluids, advanced turbulence models were used to treat, accurately, the turbulent effects on the flow, which allowed for obtaining results consistent with experimental values encountered in literature. In addition to the 3D computational model, a simplified model was developed, based on mass balance within cavities and on simplification on the momentum equations for fully developed flow along the seal region between cavities. This simplified model, based on previous approaches encountered in literature, has the ability to predict flow rate for a given differential pressure, presenting exactness and low CPU requirements, becoming an engineering tool for quick calculations and providing adequate results, almost real-time time. The results presented in this work consider a rigid stator PCP and the models developed were validated against experimental results from open literature. The results for the 3-D model showed to be sensitive to the mesh size, such that a numerical mesh refinement study is also presented. Regarding to the simplified model, some improvements were introduced in the calculation of the friction factor, allowing the application fo the model for low viscosity fluids, which was unsuccessful in models using similar approaches, presented in previous works
Resumo:
The pumping through progressing cavities system has been more and more employed in the petroleum industry. This occurs because of its capacity of elevation of highly viscous oils or fluids with great concentration of sand or other solid particles. A Progressing Cavity Pump (PCP) consists, basically, of a rotor - a metallic device similar to an eccentric screw, and a stator - a steel tube internally covered by a double helix, which may be rigid or deformable/elastomeric. In general, it is submitted to a combination of well pressure with the pressure generated by the pumping process itself. In elastomeric PCPs, this combined effort compresses the stator and generates, or enlarges, the clearance existing between the rotor and the stator, thus reducing the closing effect between their cavities. Such opening of the sealing region produces what is known as fluid slip or slippage, reducing the efficiency of the PCP pumping system. Therefore, this research aims to develop a transient three-dimensional computational model that, based on single-lobe PCP kinematics, is able to simulate the fluid-structure interaction that occurs in the interior of metallic and elastomeric PCPs. The main goal is to evaluate the dynamic characteristics of PCP s efficiency based on detailed and instantaneous information of velocity, pressure and deformation fields in their interior. To reach these goals (development and use of the model), it was also necessary the development of a methodology for generation of dynamic, mobile and deformable, computational meshes representing fluid and structural regions of a PCP. This additional intermediary step has been characterized as the biggest challenge for the elaboration and running of the computational model due to the complex kinematic and critical geometry of this type of pump (different helix angles between rotor and stator as well as large length scale aspect ratios). The processes of dynamic generation of meshes and of simultaneous evaluation of the deformations suffered by the elastomer are fulfilled through subroutines written in Fortan 90 language that dynamically interact with the CFX/ANSYS fluid dynamic software. Since a structural elastic linear model is employed to evaluate elastomer deformations, it is not necessary to use any CAE package for structural analysis. However, an initial proposal for dynamic simulation using hyperelastic models through ANSYS software is also presented in this research. Validation of the results produced with the present methodology (mesh generation, flow simulation in metallic PCPs and simulation of fluid-structure interaction in elastomeric PCPs) is obtained through comparison with experimental results reported by the literature. It is expected that the development and application of such a computational model may provide better details of the dynamics of the flow within metallic and elastomeric PCPs, so that better control systems may be implemented in the artificial elevation area by PCP
Resumo:
This work aims to use a different hydrodynamic condition applied to a new design of mixer-settler on treating wastewater produced by petroleum industry, called MDIF (Misturador-Decantador à Inversão de Fases/ Mixer-Settler based on Phase Inversion MSPI). The use of this different hydrodynamic behaviour is possible due to vertical disposition of the device and the principle of Phase Inversion that controls the MDIF, providing the generation (creation) of a cascade of drops, into an organic layer, that works as micro-decanters, thus making possible the formation of a bed of non-coalesced drops, called Bed Formation . The use of this new hydrodynamics condition allows to increase the residence time of the oil carrier drops, into an organic layer, and the device can treat a greater volume of wastewater. In view of to get this condition it is necessary to operate at high throughput (58,6 m3.m-2.h-1). By results, the condition of Bed Formation is the best one to be used when MSPI operates with throughput up to 58,6 m3.m-2.h-1. The results using the condition of Bed Formation show that increasing the height of the bed of non-coalesced drops and/or decreasing the volumetric ratio (O/A) an increase of the separation efficiency is detected
Resumo:
At the cashew nut processing industry it is often the generation of wastewaters containing high content of toxic organic compounds. The presence of these compounds is due mainly to the so called liquid of the cashew nut (CNSL). CNSL, as it is commercially known in Brazil, is the liquid of the cashew nut. It looks like an oil with dark brown color, viscous and presents a high toxicity index due to the chemical composition, i.e. phenol compounds, such as anacardic acid, cardol, 2-methyl cardol and monophenol (cardanol). These compounds are bio resistant to the conventional treatments. Furthermore, the corresponding wastewaters present high content of TOC (total organic carbon). Therefore due to the high degree of toxicity it is very important to study and develop treatments of these wastewaters before discharge to the environmental. This research aims to decompose these compounds using advanced oxidative processes (AOP) based on the photo-Fenton system. The advantage of this system is the fast and non-selective oxidation promoted by the hydroxyl radicals (●OH), that is under determined conditions can totally convert the organic pollutants to CO2 and H2O. In order to evaluate the decomposition of the organic charge system samples of the real wastewater od a processing cashew nut industry were taken. This industry was located at the country of the state of Rio Grande do Norte. The experiments were carried out with a photochemical annular reactor equipped with UV (ultra violet) lamp. Based on preliminary experiments, a Doehlert experimental design was defined to optimize the concentrations of H2O2 and Fe(II) with a total of 13 runs. The experimental conditions were set to pH equal to 3 and temperature of 30°C. The power of the lamps applied was 80W, 125W and 250W. To evaluate the decomposition rate measures of the TOC were accomplished during 4 hours of experiment. According to the results, the organic removal obtained in terms of TOC was 80% minimum and 95% maximum. Furthermore, it was gotten a minimum time of 49 minutes for the removal of 30% of the initial TOC. Based on the obtained experimental results, the photo-Fenton system presents a very satisfactory performance as a complementary treatment of the wastewater studied
Resumo:
Expanded Bed Adsorption plays an important role in the downstream processing mainly for reducing costs as well as steps besides could handling cells homogenates or fermentation broth. In this work Expanded Bed Adsorption was used to recover and purify whey proteins from coalho cheese manufacture using Streamline DEAE and Streamline SP both ionic resins as well as a hydrophobic resin Streamline Phenyl. A column of 2.6 cm inner diameter with 30 cm in height was coupled to a peristaltic pump. Hydrodynamics study was carried out with the three resins using Tris-HCl buffer in concentration of 30, 50 and 70 mM, with pH ranging from 7.0 to 8.0. In this case, assays of the expansion degree as well as Residence Time Distribution (RTD) were carried out. For the recovery and purification steps, a whey sample of 200 mL, was submitted to a column with 25mL of resin previously equilibrated with Tris/HCl (50 mM, pH 7.0) using a expanded bed. After washing, elution was carried out according the technique used. For ionic adsorption elution was carried out using 100 mL of Tris/HCl (50 mM, pH 7.0 in 1M NaCl). For Hydrophobyc interaction elution was carried out using Tris/HCl (50 mM, pH 7.0). Adsorption runs were carried out using the three resins as well as theirs combination. Results showed that for hydrodynamics studies a linear fit was observed for the three resins with a correlation coefficient (R2) about 0.9. In this case, Streamline Phenyl showed highest expansion degree reaching an expansion degree (H0/H) of 2.2. Bed porosity was of 0.7 when both resins Streamline DEAE and Streamline SP were used with StremLine Phenyl showing the highest bed porosity about 0.75. The number of theorical plates were 109, 41.5 and 17.8 and the axial dipersion coefficient (Daxial) were 0.5, 1.4 and 3.7 x 10-6 m2/s, for Streamline DEAE, Streamline SP and Streamline Phenyl, respectively. Whey proteins were adsorved fastly for the three resins with equilibrium reached in 10 minutes. Breakthrough curves showed that most of proteins stays in flowthrough as well as washing steps with 84, 77 and 96%, for Streamline DEAE, Streamline SP and Streamline Phenyl, respectively. It was observed protein peaks during elution for the three resins used. According to these peaks were identified 6 protein bands that could probably be albumin (69 KDa), lactoferrin (76 KDa), lactoperoxidase (89 KDa), β-lactoglobulin (18,3 KDa) e α-lactoalbumin (14 KDa), as well as the dimer of beta-lactoglobulin. The combined system compound for the elution of Streamline DEAE applied to the Streamline SP showed the best purification of whey proteins, mainly of the α-lactoalbumina
Estudo da circulação hidrodinâmica e da dispersão de óleo na zona costeira entre Macau e Galinhos RN
Resumo:
This paper presents a study on coastal hydrodynamics and the spread of an oil spill in waters off Macau and Galinhos, on the east coast of the state of Rio Grande do Norte in Northeast Brazil. This area has a very marked coastal dynamic owing to the complexity of its geomorphological features, developed in a regime of semidiurnal mesotides involving reefs, spits, estuaries, mangroves, lakes and dunes. The region also plays an important role in the socioeconomic development of the state, given that the production of oil, natural gas, salt and shrimp is concentrated there. The series of oil platforms is interconnected by a pipeline system that carries oil to the local terminal. This pipeline could leak at any moment, causing immense ecological damage. To gauge the risks of an oil leak and resulting contamination of the coastal region, two hydrodynamic scenarios were simulated. The results obtained were used to implement a contaminant transport model with the creation of various oil leak scenarios modeled at different volumes (from small to large) and intensities (sporadic and continuous), at points considered critical for the model (on two platforms and at two pipeline intersections), under different wind (summer and winter) and tidal (high and low at new, full and quarter moon phases) conditions. The use of hydrodynamic circulation computer models as a tool for representing a real project design has been increasingly frequent in recent years, given that they enable the realistic simulation of the hydrodynamic circulation pattern in bodies of water and an analysis of the impacts caused by contaminants released into the water. This study used the computer models contained in SisBAHIA®, in continuous development in the area of Coastal Engineering and Oceanography at COPPE/UFRJ
Resumo:
Digital Elevation Models (DEM) are numerical representations of a portion of the earth surface. Among several factors which affect the quality of a DEM, it should be emphasized the attention on the input data and the choice of the interpolating algorithm. On the other hand, several numerical models are used nowadays to characterize nearshore hydrodynamics and morphological changes in coastal areas, whose validation is based on field data collection. Independent on the complexity of the physical processes which are modeled, little attention has been given to the intrinsic bathymetric interpolation built within the numerical models of the specific application. Therefore, this study aims to investigate and to quantify the influence of the bathymetry, as obtained by a DEM, on the hydrodynamic circulation model at a coastal stretch, off the coast of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Northeast Brazil. This coastal region is characterized by strong hydrodynamic and littoral processes, resulting in a very dynamic morphology with shallow coastal bathymetry. Important economic activities, such as oil exploitation and production, fisheries, salt ponds, shrimp farms and tourism, also bring impacts upon the local ecosystems and influence themselves the local hydrodynamics. This fact makes the region one of the most important for the development of the State, but also enhances the possibility of serious environmental accidents. As a hydrodynamic model, SisBaHiA® - Environmental Hydrodynamics System ( Sistema Básico de Hidrodinâmica Ambiental ) was chosen, for it has been successfully employed at several locations along the Brazilian coast. This model was developed at the Coastal and Oceanographical Engineering Group of the Ocean Engineering Program at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Several interpolating methods were tested for the construction of the DEM, namely Natural Neighbor, Kriging, Triangulation with Linear Interpolation, Inverse Distance to a Power, Nearest Neighbor, and Minimum Curvature, all implemented within the software Surfer®. The bathymetry which was used as reference for the DEM was obtained from nautical charts provided by the Brazilian Hydrographic Service of the Brazilian Navy and from a field survey conducted in 2005. Changes in flow velocity and free surface elevation were evaluated under three aspects: a spatial vision along three profiles perpendicular to the coast and one profile longitudinal to the coast as shown; a temporal vision from three central nodes of the grid during 30 days; a hodograph analysis of components of speed in U and V, by different tidal cycles. Small, but negligible, variations in sea surface elevation were identified. However, the differences in flow and direction of velocities were significant, depending on the DEM
Resumo:
Recent astronomical observations (involving supernovae type Ia, cosmic background radiation anisotropy and galaxy clusters probes) have provided strong evidence that the observed universe is described by an accelerating, flat model whose space-time properties can be represented by the FriedmannRobertsonWalker (FRW) metric. However, the nature of the substance or mechanism behind the current cosmic acceleration remains unknown and its determination constitutes a challenging problem for modern cosmology. In the general relativistic description, an accelerat ing regime is usually obtained by assuming the existence of an exotic energy component endowed with negative pressure, called dark energy, which is usually represented by a cosmological constant ¤ associated to the vacuum energy density. All observational data available so far are in good agreement with the concordance cosmic ¤CDM model. Nevertheless, such models are plagued with several problems thereby inspiring many authors to propose alternative candidates in the relativistic context. In this thesis, a new kind of accelerating flat model with no dark energy and fully dominated by cold dark matter (CDM) is proposed. The number of CDM particles is not conserved and the present accelerating stage is a consequence of the negative pressure describing the irreversible process of gravitational particle creation. In order to have a transition from a decelerating to an accelerating regime at low redshifts, the matter creation rate proposed here depends on 2 parameters (y and ߯): the first one identifies a constant term of the order of H0 and the second one describes a time variation proportional to he Hubble parameter H(t). In this scenario, H0 does not need to be small in order to solve the age problem and the transition happens even if there is no matter creation during the radiation and part of the matter dominated phase (when the ß term is negligible). Like in flat ACDM scenarios, the dimming of distant type Ia supernovae can be fitted with just one free parameter, and the coincidence problem plaguing the models driven by the cosmological constant. ACDM is absent. The limits endowed with with the existence of the quasar APM 08279+5255, located at z = 3:91 and with an estimated ages between 2 and 3 Gyr are also investigated. In the simplest case (ß = 0), the model is compatible with the existence of the quasar for y > 0:56 whether the age of the quasar is 2.0 Gyr. For 3 Gyr the limit derived is y > 0:72. New limits for the formation redshift of the quasar are also established
Resumo:
The standard kinetic theory for a nonrelativistic diluted gas is generalized in the spirit of the nonextensive statistic distribution introduced by Tsallis. The new formalism depends on an arbitrary q parameter measuring the degree of nonextensivity. In the limit q = 1, the extensive Maxwell-Boltzmann theory is recovered. Starting from a purely kinetic deduction of the velocity q-distribution function, the Boltzmann H-teorem is generalized for including the possibility of nonextensive out of equilibrium effects. Based on this investigation, it is proved that Tsallis' distribution is the necessary and sufficient condition defining a thermodynamic equilibrium state in the nonextensive context. This result follows naturally from the generalized transport equation and also from the extended H-theorem. Two physical applications of the nonextensive effects have been considered. Closed analytic expressions were obtained for the Doppler broadening of spectral lines from an excited gas, as well as, for the dispersion relations describing the eletrostatic oscillations in a diluted electronic plasma. In the later case, a comparison with the experimental results strongly suggests a Tsallis distribution with the q parameter smaller than unity. A complementary study is related to the thermodynamic behavior of a relativistic imperfect simple fluid. Using nonequilibrium thermodynamics, we show how the basic primary variables, namely: the energy momentum tensor, the particle and entropy fluxes depend on the several dissipative processes present in the fluid. The temperature variation law for this moving imperfect fluid is also obtained, and the Eckart and Landau-Lifshitz formulations are recovered as particular cases