DRAG REDUCTION OF FLOW THROUGH PACKED BED MATERIAL USING NATURAL POLYMER

Drag reduction is a technique used in controlling the turbulence produced in case of flows either through pipes or through soil strata. Drag reduction effects come into play, even with small amount of macromolecules in solutions in flows. In this study an experimental investigation of the flow of drag reducing fluids through packed bed is presented. The drag  fully developed in a packed bed flow with five concentrations 0.0125%(w/v), 0.025%(w/v), 0.0375%(w/v), 0.05%(w/v) and 0.0625%(w/v) of natural polymer material namely Guar Gum is investigated experimentally. It was found in analyzing the data that as the polymer concentration increases, the magnitude of the drag reduction increases, it reaches a maximum value at optimum concentration and then begins to fall gradually with further increase in polymer concentration. In this analysis 0.02 %( w/v) to 0.04 %( w/v) has been opted as the optimum concentration for which drag reduction is found to be maximum. This optimum concentration of polymer helps in achieving the most efficient flow through soil strata or conduits. In this study three empirical models namely Ergun’s empirical equation, Carmen’s Model and Sawistowski Model have been used for the verification of the experimental results.The three models gave almost similar type of variation of drag with only slight variation in friction factor.