In this study, we used polyethylene oxides as a drag reducing additive. In order to study the effect of concentration and molecular weight of the polymer on the drag reduction, 4 molecular weights (2×10⁵, 4×10⁵, 9×10⁵, 4×10⁶) and 4 concentrations (1, 5, 10, 20 wppm) of PEO were selected for the experiments. Also, the hydraulic conditions were varied from Reynolds number 30,000-60,000. The results are showed that the drag reduction effect rate was more than about 20% for all molecular weights and constructions of PEO within the range investigated in this study, and the maximum drag reduction rate was 50% for 4×10⁶ of molecular weight and 20wppm of concentration. Finally, we obtained the results that the drag reduction effect tends to be higher as molecular weight and Reynolds number increase.
Kim, N.J., Kim, S., Cho, Y.S., Lim, S.H., Makhmudov, I. and Chun, W.G. (2008). 'Measurement of Drag Reduction in Polymer Added Turbulent Flow'. SET Proceedings, 7(1), pp. 2246-2254. https://doi.org/10.65582/set.2008.318
