Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Pipelines are essential to the transport of thousands of tons of slurry and petroleum products in Canada. Thex000D
hydro-transport pipelines can be hundreds of kilometers long and require several pumping stations to overcomex000D
the friction force between the fluid and the pipe wall. It is well known in the industry that the addition of ax000D
small amount of long-chain polymers to the can reduce friction drag by up to 70%, and consequently reduce thex000D
pumping costs. However, the polymeric additives need to be compatible with the shear rate of the flow and thex000D
chemical composition of the fluid.x000D
The objective of the proposed research program is to investigate the drag reduction performance of SNFx000D
polyacrylamide products as a collaborative project between SNF and the Laboratory of Turbulent Flows (LTF)x000D
at the University of Alberta. The SNF team is interested to further understand the relation between ionicity,x000D
molecular weight, and macromolecular architecture of their polyacrylamide polymers for drag reduction inx000D
hydraulic applications. The preliminary experiments will be carried out in a Taylor-Couette device forx000D
accelerated tests using a small polymeric solution in the presence of solid particles. A slurry flow loop withx000D
high Reynolds number will be applied to investigate the magnitude and duration of drag reduction usingx000D
polyacrylamide in slurry flows with different composition of particles and ionicity.x000D
The proposed research will provide practical guidelines for development of high performance polymer dragx000D
reducers. The long-term goal of the research program at LTF is reduction of skin-friction, and development ofx000D
efficient and environmentally friendly pipelines for slurry and petroleum transport in Canada.