Experimental investigation of drag reduction in pipes

Just as blood vessels are vital for a living person, piping systems are equally important for a manufacturing company. Friction losses occurring in turbulent flows within the pipe appear as pressure losses. Reducing these pressure losses is very important to reduce the direct cost by reducing the energy that the pump will consume. In this thesis, frictional in pipe flows were experimentally investigated by using polyacrylamide, carboxymethylcellulose and xanthan gum additives. For different concentrations (75, 150, 225, 300 ppm) and for 4500, 6000, 7000, 8000 and 10000 Reynolds numbers; studies were carried out on gate valves, sharp bends, ball valves, pipes with 100 mm diameter and pipes with 50 mm diameter. It was found that drag reduction can be reduced by polyacrylamide, carboxtmethylcellulose and xhantan gum with in the range of 5-35%, 5-57,4% and 5-50% respectively. As a result, it was observed that as the concentration and Reynolds number increased, frictional losses decreased. Keywords: Drag Reduction, flow in pipe, polymer and surfactan additived