Drag Reduction and Solvation in Polymer Solutions
Witold Brostow, Samir Majumdar, and Ram Prakash Singh
Departments of Materials Science and Chemistry
University of North Texas
Denton, TX 76203-5310, USA
ABSTRACT
A model is described which explains drag reduction (DR) in dilute polymer
solutions in terms of solvation of macromolecular chains and formation
of relatively stable domains. The domains partly suppress the vortex
formation, act as energy sinks, and also play a role in mechanical degradation
in flow (MDF). We report ultrasonically determined solvation numbers
for a series of copolymers with the same chemical structure but differeing
widely in their instrinsic viscosities. The solvation numbers confirm
the model. Thus, we have a criterion for selection of DR agents with
low MDF for: oil well operations; crude oil transport; fire fighting;
high sewer throughput; irrigation; hydrotransport solids; marine applications;
and biomedical applications including the arteriosclerosis pervention.
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