In this study the applicability of the Libyan crude oil flow induced by improved lab pumping system was examined in order to evaluate the effect of adding polymeric materials of Polystyrene and Polydimethylsiloxane as drag reducing agents (DRA) on the flow of Sharara crude oil in the pipeline. The polymers are injected through a pumping system at different concentrations rounded between (10-100) ppm. Several experiments were carried out to determine the best concentration of polymer, which satisfied lowest drag force on of crude oil flow rate. Furthermore, the effect of additive concentration on the Viscosity(μ), friction factor (ƒ), percentage drag reduction (%DR) and the amount of flow increases (%FI) were determined. The results show that the activities of Polydimethylsiloxane for Drag reduction is higher than drag reduction for Polystyrene. However, the %DR is generally increased with increasing of polymer concentration for all tested additives. It is progressively increased with increasing Reynolds number (Re) at any specific concentration of the polymeric additives. The friction factor is well correlated with Reynolds numbers and polymer concentration according to the relation of the form ƒ= k ReaCb, the results showed good agreement between the observed values and the predicted ones.
Experimental Study of Friction Factor for Iraqi Crude Oil by Using Nano-Al2O3 as Drag Reduction Agent (DRA)