Field test of drag reducing agents in a three-inch pipeline at the West Hackberry, Louisiana SPR site. [A guar and 6 polyacrylamide drag reducing agents]

Technical Report · Fri Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:6318012

Hinkebein, T E

A flow test of seven drag reducing agents (DRAs) was carried out at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) site at West Hackberry, Louisiana. A 3-inch pipeline was operated with DRA addition, at controlled concentrations, to flowing brine while the fluid flow rate and the pressure drop were continuously monitored. The fluid flow rates were controlled so that the wall shear stress in the 3-inch pipeline approximated the wall shear stress in the 36-inch brine disposal pipeline at the West Hackberry SPR site. Two classes of materials were tested: a guar and six polyacrylamide DRAs. These materials were tested at concentrations up to 19 parts per million (ppM). The polyacrylamide DRAs all have a higher level of activity than the guar, but demonstrate a susceptibility to pipe roughness that the guar did not. The six polyacrylamide DRAs showed maximum friction factor reductions at 19 ppM between 27% and 44%. The maximum friction factor reduction for the guar DRA was 9%. The performances of all DRAs were functions of concentration and were fit by a power law model. The performance of the polyacrylamides was proportional to approximately the 0.9 power of concentration while that of the guar was proportional to the 1.5 power. At the test flow condition, the improvement observed in these drag reduction experiments should be equivalent to flow improvement in the 36-inch pipeline. 4 refs., 10 figs., 8 tabs.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 6318012
• Report Number(s): SAND-85-2027; ON: DE86005106
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
024000* -- Petroleum-- Storage-- (-1989)
42 ENGINEERING
420400 -- Engineering-- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
ADDITIVES
BRINES
DATA
DRAG
ENERGY SOURCES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FEDERAL REGION VI
FIELD TESTS
FLUID FLOW
FOSSIL FUELS
FRICTION
FUELS
INFORMATION
LOUISIANA
MANAGEMENT
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC POLYMERS
PETROLEUM
PIPELINES
POLYAMIDES
POLYMERS
PRESSURE DROP
RESERVES
RESOURCES
SHEAR
STORAGE
STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE
TESTING
UNDERGROUND STORAGE
USA
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT