Drag Reduction using Polyacrylamide in Hydraulic Applications

在加拿大，管道对数千吨泥浆和石油产品的运输至关重要。水力输送管道可能长达数百公里，需要几个泵站来克服流体与管壁之间的摩擦力。众所周知，在泵中加入少量长链聚合物可以减少高达70%的摩擦阻力，从而降低泵送成本。然而，聚合物添加剂需要与流体的剪切速率和流体的化学组成相适应。建议的研究计划的目标是作为SNF和阿尔伯塔大学湍流实验室(LTF)的合作项目，研究SNF聚丙烯酰胺产品的减阻性能。SNF团队有兴趣进一步了解其用于液压减阻的聚丙烯酰胺聚合物的电离性、分子量和大分子结构之间的关系。初步实验将在泰勒-库埃特装置中进行，以便在固体颗粒存在的情况下使用小的聚合物溶液进行加速试验。利用高雷诺数的浆体流动回路，研究了在不同颗粒组成和离子组成的浆体流动中，聚丙烯酰胺减阻的幅度和持续时间，为高性能聚合物减阻器的开发提供了实用指导。LTF研究计划的长期目标是减少表面摩擦，并在加拿大开发高效和环保的泥浆和石油运输管道。

Pipelines are essential to the transport of thousands of tons of slurry and petroleum products in Canada. Thehydro-transport pipelines can be hundreds of kilometers long and require several pumping stations to overcomethe friction force between the fluid and the pipe wall. It is well known in the industry that the addition of asmall amount of long-chain polymers to the can reduce friction drag by up to 70%, and consequently reduce thepumping costs. However, the polymeric additives need to be compatible with the shear rate of the flow and thechemical composition of the fluid.The objective of the proposed research program is to investigate the drag reduction performance of SNFpolyacrylamide products as a collaborative project between SNF and the Laboratory of Turbulent Flows (LTF)at the University of Alberta. The SNF team is interested to further understand the relation between ionicity,molecular weight, and macromolecular architecture of their polyacrylamide polymers for drag reduction inhydraulic applications. The preliminary experiments will be carried out in a Taylor-Couette device foraccelerated tests using a small polymeric solution in the presence of solid particles. A slurry flow loop withhigh Reynolds number will be applied to investigate the magnitude and duration of drag reduction usingpolyacrylamide in slurry flows with different composition of particles and ionicity.The proposed research will provide practical guidelines for development of high performance polymer dragreducers. The long-term goal of the research program at LTF is reduction of skin-friction, and development ofefficient and environmentally friendly pipelines for slurry and petroleum transport in Canada.