Turbulent Drag Reduction in Tubes with Polymer Solutions

Abstract

<p>This thesis is a study of drag reduction with polymer solutions in tubes using a simple rheometer. The drag reduction was studied in five different small diameter tubes at Reynold's number varying from 1000 to 25000.</p> <p>A polyacrylamide, MRL-402, manufactured by Stein Hall Ltd. was chosen for the above study because of its good drag reducing ability and resistance to degradation. The concentrations of polymer solutions used for the experiment ranged from 1 to 200 wppm.</p> <p>An attempt has been made to correlate the drag reduction data so that drag can be predicted from a single curve. The correlations are given by equations β = β(s'T) and β = β' (s'/s'0.50 ) following the work of Astarita (2).</p>