Experimental study on flow drag reduction characteristics of xanthan gum solution in smooth pipes with different diameters

Experimental study on drag reduction characteristics of xanthan gum solution in smooth pipes with different diameters has been conducted.The variable parameters are as fol-lows:(1)the pipe diameters,5,10 and 20mm,respectively;(2)the concentration of xanthan gum solution ranging from 50 to 550ppm;(3 )fluid velocity,characterized by flow generalized Reynolds number in the range of 0~50000.The pipe pressure dropΔp and flow volume flux Q under different conditions have been measured.The relationship between drag reduction and con-centration of xanthan gum solution is obtained,and the influence of Reynolds number on friction factorλis also investigated.It is observed that the drag reduction effect of xanthan gum solution relys obviously on the concentration of the solution,percent drag reduction increasing with the increase of xanthan gum solution concentration until it reaches the optimum saturation concentra-tion where the percent drag reduction is mainly keeping constant.The experimental results also show the drag reduction type difference under low and high Reynolds number flow conditions for xanthan gum solution in three pipes with different diameters.