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The basics of drag reduction

Journal Article · · Oil Gas J.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6502665
Drag reducing agents (DRA's) can substantially reduce friction loss in most pipelines when flowing most hydrocarbon liquids. This article reviews DRA's, their fundamentals and applications, role in active and passive drag, and incidence as specific products and hardware. DRA-solvent solutions are viscoelastic, time-independent, shear degradable, non-Newtonian fluids. A DRA-solvent solution handles as an ordinary hydrocarbon except in turbulent flow when the reduced friction becomes evident. DRA's in present use in oil and products pipelines are themselves hydrocarbons and thus should have no effect on refining processes or refined products. The amount of DRA required to produce a reasonable drag reduction is physically quite small: a DR of 30% requires about 24 weight ppm of DRA. Pipeline hydraulics and especially the application of DRA's are still inexact sciences, neither accurate nor especially precise.
Research Organization:
C.B. Lester and Associates Inc., Longview, TX
OSTI ID:
6502665
Journal Information:
Oil Gas J.; (United States), Journal Name: Oil Gas J.; (United States) Vol. 83:5; ISSN OIGJA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English