Influence of Wall Strain Rate, Polymer Concentration and Channel Height upon Drag Reduction and Turbulent Structure

Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Harder ◽  
William G. Tiederman

A two-component laser velocimeter has been used to determine the effect of wall strain rate, polymer concentration and channel height upon the drag reduction and turbulent structure in fully developed, low concentration, two-dimensional channel flows. Water flows at equal wall shear stress and with Reynolds numbers from 14430 to 34640 were measured for comparison. Drag reduction levels clearly depended upon wall strain rate, polymer concentration and channel height independently.However, most of the turbulent structure depended only upon the level of drag reduction. The slope of the logarithmic law of the wall increased as drag reduction increased. Similarly, the root-mean-square of the fluctuations in the streamwise velocity increased while the r.m.s. of the fluctuations in the wall-normal velocity decreased with drag reduction. The production of the streamwise normal Reynolds stress and the Reynolds shear stress decreased in the drag-reduced flows. Therefore it appears that the polymer solutions inhibit the transfer of energy from the streamwise to the wall-normal velocity fluctuations. This could occur through inhibiting the newtonian transfer mechanism provided by the pressure-strain correlation. In six drag-reducing flows, the sum of the Reynolds stress and the mean viscous stress was equal to the total shear stress. However, for the combination of highest concentration (5 p.p.m.), smallest channel height (25 mm) and highest wall strain rate (4000 s - 1 ), the sum of the Reynolds and viscous stresses was substantially lower than the total stress indicating the presence of a strong non-newtonian effect. In all drag-reducing flows the correlation coefficient for uv decreased as the axes of principal stress for the Reynolds stress rotated toward the streamwise and wall-normal directions.


Author(s):  
Masaaki Motozawa ◽  
Taiki Kurosawa ◽  
Hening Xu ◽  
Kaoru Iwamoto ◽  
Hirotomo Ando ◽  
...  

Experimental study on turbulent drag reduction (DR) and polymer concentration distribution with blowing polymer solution from whole surface of the channel wall was carried out. A set of measurements for drag reduction were performed with blowing rate for the sintered porous metal plate (0.45m × 0.45m × 3) adjusted from 0.5 L/min to 4.0 L/min, and concentration of polymer solution varied from 10 ppm to 200 ppm. Reynolds number based on the channel height was chosen for 20000 and 40000 in this experiment. The polymer concentration distribution in the near-wall region (0.5 mm < y < 20 mm) at three locations of the downstream from the leading edge of the blower wall was also measured. Polymer concentration can be analyzed via Total Organic Carbon (TOC) analyzer. Through the analysis of mass transfer by polymer concentration distribution, we found that polymer which exists in buffer layer (10 < y+ < 70) has important influence on drag reduction.


1981 ◽  
Vol 103 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. T. Kuo ◽  
L. S. G. Kovasznay

A novel flow configuration was explored for the study of the behavior of drag reducing polymers. A screw pump consisting of a smooth cylinder and a concentrically placed screw was used to create a strongly three-dimensional but essentially laminar flow. In the first phase of the study, the static pressure head developed by the screw pump was measured as a function of polymer concentration (polyox 10 to 100 ppm in water). A large increase of the developed head was observed that behaved in an analogous manner to drag reduction as far as concentration and straining of the polymer solution was concerned. In the second phase of the study, a new apparatus was constructed and the additional parameter of a superimposed through flow was included and the degree of failure of the superposition principle was established. Sensitivity of the phenomenon to chemicals like HCl, HNO3, and NaOH in the polymer solution was also studied. When the effect of these chemicals on the polymer solution flow behavior was presented in terms of the pH value of the polymer solution, it showed a similar trend to those observed in drag reduction.


2015 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafhael M. Andrade ◽  
Anselmo S. Pereira ◽  
Edson J. Soares

Flexible and rigid long chain polymers in very dilute solutions can significantly reduce the drag in turbulent flows. The polymers successively stretch and coil by interacting with the turbulent structures, which changes the turbulent flow and further imposes a transient behavior on the drag reduction (DR) as well as a subsequent mechanical polymer degradation. This time-dependent phenomenon is strongly affected by a number of parameters, which are analyzed here, such as the Reynolds number, polymer concentration, polymer molecular weight, and salt concentration. This last parameter can dramatically modify the polymeric structure. The investigation of the salt concentration's impact on the DR is mostly motivated by some potential applications of this technique to ocean transport and saline fluid flows. In the present paper, a cylindrical double gap rheometer device is used to study the effects of salt concentration on DR over time. The reduction of drag is induced by three polymers: poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO), polyacrylamide (PAM), and xanthan gum (XG). These polymers are dissolved in deionized water both in the presence of salt and in its absence. The DR is displayed from the very start of the test to the time when the DR achieves its final level of efficiency, following the mechanical degradations. The presence of salt in PEO and XG solutions reduces the maximum DR, DRmax, as well as the time to achieve it. In contrast, the DR does not significantly change over the time for PAM solutions upon the addition of salt.


Author(s):  
Brian R. Elbing

Abstract The current study explores the influence of polymer drag reduction on the near-wall velocity distribution in a turbulent boundary layer. The classical view is that the polymers modify the intercept constant within the log-region without impacting the von Kármán coefficient, which results in the log-region being unaltered though shifted outward from the wall. However, it has been recently shown that this is not accurate, especially at high drag reduction (> 40%). Past work examining the von Kármán coefficient and intercept constant has shown that polymer properties must impact the deviations, but without any quantification of the dependence. This work reviews the literature to make estimates of the local polymer properties and then demonstrates that the scatter at HDR can be attributed to variations in the Weissenberg number. In addition, new polymer ocean results are incorporated and shown to be quite consistent with polymer injection results using the maximum polymer concentration to define the polymer properties.


2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Zhou ◽  
S. N. Shah

The rheological properties and friction pressure losses of several fluids that are most commonly used as well drilling, completion, and stimulation fluids have been investigated experimentally. These fluids include polymeric fluids – Xanthan gum, partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (PHPA), guar gum, and hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC), bentonite drilling mud, oil-based drilling mud, and guar-based fracturing slurries. Rheological measurements using a Bohlin CS 50 rheometer and a model 35 Fann viscometer showed that these fluids exhibit shear thinning and thermal thinning behavior except the bentonite drilling mud whose viscosity increased as the temperature was raised. Flow experiments using a full-scale coiled tubing test facility showed that the friction pressure loss in coiled tubing is significantly higher than in straight tubing. Since the polymeric fluids displayed drag reducing property, their drag reduction behavior in straight and coiled tubings was analyzed and compared. It was found that the drag reduction (DR) in coiled tubing is much lower than that in straight tubing. Plots of drag reduction vs. generalized Reynolds number indicate that the drag reduction in coiled tubing was not affected by polymer concentration as much as in straight tubing. The onsets of turbulence and drag reduction in coiled tubing were significantly delayed as compared with straight tubing. The effect of solids content on the friction pressure losses in coiled tubing is also briefly discussed.


Author(s):  
Fabio Ernesto Rodriguez Corredor ◽  
Majid Bizhani ◽  
Ergun Kuru

Polymer drag reduction is investigated using the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique in fully developed turbulent flow through a horizontal flow loop with concentric annular geometry (inner to outer pipe radius ratio = 0.4). The polymer used was a commercially available partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (PHPA). The polymer concentration was varied from 0.07 to 0.12% V/V. The drag reduction is enhanced by increasing polymer concentration until the concentration reaches an optimum value. After that, the drag reduction is decreased with the increasing polymer concentration. Optimum concentration value of PHPA was found to be around 0.1% V/V. Experiments were conducted at solvent Reynolds numbers of 38700, 46700 and 56400. The percent drag reduction was found to be increasing with the increasing Reynolds number. The study was also focused on analyzing the mean flow and turbulence statistics for fully-turbulent flow using the velocity measurements acquired by PIV. Axial mean velocity profile was found to be following the universal wall law close to the wall (i.e., y+ <10), but it deviated from log law results with an increased slope in the logarithmic zone (i.e., y+ >30). In all cases of polymer application, the viscous sublayer (i.e., y+ <10) thickness was found to be higher than that of the water flow. Reynolds shear stress in the core flow region was found to be decreasing with the increase in polymer concentration.


2003 ◽  
Vol 2003.2 (0) ◽  
pp. 53-54
Author(s):  
Masato HAMADA ◽  
Noriaki OHTA ◽  
Hiroharu KATO

2007 ◽  
Vol 584 ◽  
pp. 281-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
KYOUNGYOUN KIM ◽  
CHANG-F. LI ◽  
R. SURESHKUMAR ◽  
S. BALACHANDAR ◽  
RONALD J. ADRIAN

The effects of polymer stresses on near-wall turbulent structures are examined by using direct numerical simulation of fully developed turbulent channel flows with and without polymer stress. The Reynolds number based on friction velocity and half-channel height is 395, and the stresses created by adding polymer are modelled by a finite extensible nonlinear elastic, dumbbell model. Both low- (18%) and high-drag reduction (61%) cases are investigated. Linear stochastic estimation is employed to compute the conditional averages of the near-wall eddies. The conditionally averaged flow fields for Reynolds-stress-maximizing Q2 events show that the near-wall vortical structures are weakened and elongated in the streamwise direction by polymer stresses in a manner similar to that found by Stone et al. (2004) for low-Reynolds-number quasi-streamwise vortices (‘exact coherent states: ECS’). The conditionally averaged fields for the events with large contribution to the polymer work are also examined. The vortical structures in drag-reduced turbulence are very similar to those for the Q2 events, i.e. counter-rotating streamwise vortices near the wall and hairpin vortices above the buffer layer. The three-dimensional distributions of conditionally averaged polymer force around these vortical structures show that the polymer force components oppose the vortical motion. More fundamentally, the torques due to polymer stress are shown to oppose the rotation of the vortices, thereby accounting for their weakening. The observations also extend concepts of the vortex retardation by viscoelastic counter-torques to the heads of hairpins above the buffer layer, and offer an explanation of the mechanism of drag reduction in the outer region of wall turbulence, as well as in the buffer layer.


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