Effect of Temperature on Degradation of Polymer Drag Reduction and Heat Transfer in Non-Newtonian Fluid

摘要

Drag reduction is a well known phenomenon. Possible mechanism deduced from heat transfer has been suggested earlier for non isothermal Newtonian fluid treated with polymer drag reducer. Several works have shown the susceptibility of the long chain polymer to shear degradation, hence reduction in its performance. Most of the works were performed in isothermal conditions. Moreover, it mostly covers water soluble polymers. There is an increasing need to address the shear degradation phenomenon for oil soluble polymer, where its performance is related to increase transportation capacity of pipeline as well as energy savings. In this work the degradation of oil drag reducing polymer in a non-isothermal environment in which rheological change of oil (the carrier fluid in this work) occurs as the fluid is transformed from Newtonian to non-Newtonian is addressed. In another words, the paper addresses the temperature effect on the degradation of the oil soluble drag reducer polymer in a wide range of temperatures. The non-Newtonian fluid behaviour here is defined as the temperature below which paraffin deposits in presence of drag reducer polymer. The validity of equations for estimating Colburn factor is also addressed.