Characteristics of Drag Reduction by Guar Gum in Spiral Pipes

On the transport of fluid using pipe, pressure drop is very important aspect because related with energy consumption. Special pipe as spiral pipe is used as a fuel mixing system of fuel oil on ships. It is intended to prevent precipitation and to reduce the pressure drop. The purpose of this research is to investigate the reduction of pressure drop in a spiral pipe with the addition biopolymer (guar gum). Spiral pipe with aspect ratio, P / Di = 4.3, 6.7 and 7.0 are used in this study. Working fluid used guar gum solution of 150 ppm and 300 ppm. Circular pipe with same diameter is used for comparison. Analysis of flow characteristics based on the power law model for non-Newtonian fluid. Experimental was conducted from low to high Reynolds number up to 50,000. The results showed that the effect of biopolymer guar gum solution can reduce drag either on a circular pipe or spiral pipe.