Modification of the Velocity Profiles of Turbulent Flow of Water Using Polymeric Solutions; Experimental Investigation

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Faculty of chemical and petroleum engineering, Razi university, Kermanshah, Iran

2 Academic staff/ Faculty of oil and petrochemical Eng., Razi University, Iran

3 Academic staff/ faculty of chemical and petroleum engineering, Razi university, Kermanshah, Iran

Abstract

Low concentration of drag reducing agents have found their efficient applications to reduce required
energy of the pipeline turbulent flow transportation. These additives can effect on turbulent structures,
and can modify velocity profile, and thus they cause to reduction of the skin friction of the flow. In the
present study, two commercially available copolymer of polyacrylamide with different molecular
weights, were employed to study the possible impact of different concentrations of the polymers on
pressure drop reduction of turbulent flow of water in pipeline. The obtained results demonstrated that
both the copolymer showed high drag reduction along with low degradation rate for 2hr of the
experimentation. Addition of 30ppm of the high molecular weight polymer to turbulent flow showed
54% drag reduction. Following the drag reduction measurement, turbulent velocity profiles for the
optimum concentration of the two polymers were obtained by using laser Doppler velocimetry
technique. The results showed a tendency to laminarization of the flow supported with low amounts of
Reynold stresses and velocity fluctuations in the presence of the polymer. In all the cases, the effects
of the higher molecular weight polymer on the velocity profiles of the turbulent flow is more desirable
than lower molecular weight one.

Keywords


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