Parameters of drag reducing polymers and drag reduction performance in single-phase water flow

This study presents experimental investigation about the effect of polymer parameters on the performance of the drag reducing polymers in single-phase water flowing in a horizontal pipe of 30.6 mm ID. Master solutions (1000 ppm) of ten high-molecular weight polymers were injected at different flow rates to achieve polymer concentrations in the range of 2-40 ppm in the test section. The drag reduction increased with polymer concentration up to 10 ppm, above which it reached a plateau value. While the drag reduction at the plateau value increases with polymer molecular weight, the maximum drag reduction was not affected by the increase in polymer charge density up to 13%. For instance, the maximum drag reduction for anionic polymers with molecular weight 6-8 million Da. and charge density between 5 and 13% was around 60%, which decreased to around 38% for the polymer with charge density of 25%. Ionic polymers provided more drag reduction than nonionic ones. The overall conclusion is that drag reduction depends on polymer ability to form intermolecular associations and/or its flexibility, which can be enhanced by increasing molecular weight, decreasing charge density, and selecting smaller side groups in the main polymer backbone.