Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T01:04:54.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lowering mechanical degradation of drag reducers in turbulent flow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Witold Brostow ,
Haley E. Hagg Lobland ,
Taruna Reddy ,
Ram P. Singh  and
Leslie White
Witold Brostow*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Advanced Polymers & Optimized Materials (LAPOM), Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas 76203-5310
Haley E. Hagg Lobland
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Advanced Polymers & Optimized Materials (LAPOM), Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas 76203-5310
Taruna Reddy
Affiliation:
Materials Science Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721 302, India
Ram P. Singh
Affiliation:
Office of the Vice Chancellor, University of Lucknow, Lucknow 226 007, India
Leslie White
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Advanced Polymers & Optimized Materials (LAPOM), Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas 76203-5310
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Drag reduction (DR) agents are used in several ppm concentrations to accelerate significantly the flow through conduits in oil pipelines, oil well operations, flood water disposal, fire fighting, field irrigation, transport of suspensions and slurries, sewage systems, water heating and cooling systems, airplane tank filling, marine systems, and also in biomedical systems including blood flow. The drag reduction agents are typically high molecular mass polymers; in industrial applications they undergo mechanical degradation in turbulent flow. We provide an equation that describes quantitatively the degradation, thus predicting drag reduction as a function of time and of the concentration of the drag reduction agent. We report how grafting a polymer on the backbone of a different polymer affects the drag reduction efficacy. Our grafted polymer undergoes degradation by flow turbulence more slowly and also provides high levels of drag reduction efficacy at much lower concentrations than homopolymers do.

Keywords

FluidPolymerSlurry
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , January 2007 , pp. 56 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1Cox, L.R., Dunlop, E.H., and North, A.M.: Role of molecular aggregates in liquid drag reduction by polymers. Nature 249, 243 (1974).Google Scholar
2Kulicke, W-M., Kötter, M., and Gräger, H.: Drag reduction phenomenon with special emphasis on homogeneous polymer solutions. Adv. Polymer Sci. 89, 1 (1989).Google Scholar
3Singh, R.P.: Drag reduction. Ch. 14 in Encyclopedia of Fluid Mechanics, edited by Cheremisinoff, N.P. (Gulf, Houston, 1990).Google Scholar
4Gyr, A. and Bewersdorff, H.W.: Drag Reduction in Turbulent Flow by Additives (Kluwer, Dordrecht–Boston, 1995).Google Scholar
5Mostardi, R.A., Thomas, L.C., Greene, H.L., Van Essen, F., and Nokes, R.F.: Suppression of atherosclerosis in rabbits using drag reducing polymers. Biorheology 15, 1 (1978).Google ScholarPubMed
6Greene, H.L., Mostardi, R.F., and Nokes, R.F.: Effects of drag reducing polymers on initiation of atherosclerosis. Polymer Eng. Sci. 20, 499 (1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7Zakin, J.L. and Hunston, D.L.: Effects of solvent nature on the mechanical degradation of high polymer solutions. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 22, 1763 (1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8Hunston, D.L. and Zakin, J.L.: Flow-assisted degradation in dilute polystyrene solutions. Polymer Eng. Sci. 20, 517 (1980).Google Scholar
9Lucas, E.F., Soares, B.G., and Monteiro, E.: Characterization of polymers (Caracterização de Polimeros) in Portugese (e-papers, Rio de Janeiro, 2001).Google Scholar
10Gedde, U.W.: Polymer Physics (Springer, Berlin–New York, 2002).Google Scholar
11Brostow, W.: Drag reduction and mechanical degradation in polymer solutions in flow. Polymer 24, 631 (1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12Brostow, W.: Macromolecular conformations in solutions. I. Model for chains with partial flexibility. J. Stat. Phys. 29, 849 (1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13Brostow, W., Macip, M.A., and Sochanski, J.S.: Macromolecular conformations in solutions. II. Thermodynamics of interactions. J. Stat. Phys. 29, 865 (1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14Brostow, W., Ertepinar, H., and Singh, R.P.: Flow of dilute polymer solutions: chain conformations and degradation of drag reducers. Macromolecules 23, 5109 (1990).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15Kube, O., Wendt, E., and Springer, J.: Numerical evaluation of screening length and anomalous small-angle x-ray scattering of polystyrene in benzene. Polymer 28, 1635 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16Wendt, E. and Springer, J.: Screening and excess low-angle scattering in semidilute solutions of polystyrene in benzene. Polymer 29, 1301 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17Brostow, W., Drewniak, M., and Medvedev, N.N.: Chain overlap and entanglements in dilute polymer solutions: Brownian dynamics simulations. Macromol. Rapid Commun. 4, 745 (1995).Google Scholar
18Brostow, W. and Drewniak, M.: Computer simulation of chain conformations in dilute polymer solutions. J. Chem. Phys. 105, 7135 (1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19Brostow, W., Majumdar, S., and Singh, R.P.: Drag reduction and solvation in polymer solutions. Macromol. Rapid Commun. 20, 144 (1999).3.0.CO;2-6>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20Deshmukh, S.R. and Singh, R.P.: Drag reduction characteristics of graft copolymers of xanthangum and polyacrylamide. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 32, 6163 (1986).Google Scholar
21Rath, S.K. and Singh, R.P.: Flocculation characteristics of grafted and ungrafted starch, amylose, and amylopectin. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 66, 1721 (1997).3.0.CO;2-Y>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22Rath, S.K. and Singh, R.P.: Grafted amylopectin: Applications in flocculation. Colloids Surf., A 139, 129 (1998).Google Scholar
23Rath, S.K. and Singh, R.P.: On the characterization of grafted and ungrafted starch, amylose, and amylopectin. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 70, 1795 (1998).3.0.CO;2-2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24Singh, R.P., Karmakar, G.P., Rath, S.K., Karmakar, N.C., Pandey, S.R., Tripathi, T., Panda, J., Kannan, K., Jain, S.K., and Lan, N.T.: Biodegradable drag reducing agents and flocculants based on polysaccharides: Materials and applications. Polymer Eng. Sci. 40, 46 (2000).Google Scholar
25Lim, S.T., Choi, H.J., Biswal, D., and Singh, R.P.: Turbulent drag reduction characteristics of amylopectin and its derivative. e-Polymers 066 (2004).Google Scholar
26Kowalik, R.W., Duvdevani, I., Pfeiffer, D.G., Lundeberg, N.D., Kitano, K., and Schultz, D.N.: Enhanced drag reduction via interpolymer associations. J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 24, 1 (1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27Choi, H.J., Lim, S.T., Lai, P-Y., and Chan, C.K.: Turbulent drag reduction and degradation of DNA. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 088302 (2002).Google Scholar
28Lim, S.T., Park, S.J., Chan, C.K., and Choi, H.J.: Turbulent drag reduction characteristics induced by calf-thymus DNA. Physica A (Amsterdam) 350, 84 (2005).Google Scholar
29Bello, J.B., Muller, A.J., and Saenz, A.E.: Effect of intermolecular crosslinks on drag reduction by polymer solutions. Polym. Bull. 36, 111 (1996).Google Scholar
30Kim, C.A., Choi, H.J., Kim, C.B., and Jhon, M.S.: Drag reduction characteristics of polysaccharide xanthan gum. Macromol. Rapid Commun. 19, 419 (1998).Google Scholar
31Kim, C.A., Jo, D.S., Choi, H.J., Kim, C.B., and Jhon, M.S.: A high-precision rotating disk apparatus for drag reduction characterization. Polymer Testing 20, 43 (2001).Google Scholar
32Choi, H.J., Kim, C.A., and Jhon, M.S.: Universal drag reduction characteristics of polyisobutylene in a rotating disk apparatus. Polymer 40, 4527 (1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33Hoyt, J.W.: An apparatus for drag reduction determination, in Symposium on Rheology, edited by Morris, A.W. and Wang, J.S. (Am. Soc. Mech. Engrs., New York, 1975), p. 258.Google Scholar
34Brostow, W. and Wolf, B.A.: Chain overlap and intersegmental interactions in polymers solutions. Polym. Commun. 32, 551 (1991).Google Scholar
35Choi, H.J., Kim, C.A., Sohn, J-I., and Jhon, M.S.: An exponential decay function of polymer degradation in turbulent drag reduction. Polym. Degrad. Stab. 69, 341 (2000).Google Scholar
36Roy, R.: Interdisciplinary materials research: The reluctant reformer of western science. Internat. Union Mater. Res. Societies Facets 4(2), 18 (2005).Google Scholar
37Hofmann, R.: Some reasons to be interested in carbides. Invited lecture at the 13th Annual POLYCHAR World Forum on Advanced Materials (Singapore, July 3–8, 2005).Google Scholar