An experimental study of heat and momentum transfer in pipe flow of viscoelastic fluids

Heat transfer and pressure drop results are presented for pipe flow of aqueous solutions of polyacrylamide and polyethylene oxide in weight concentration of a few thousand parts per million. Experiments were conducted in two experimental set-ups. The first set-up consisted of two different diameter tubes. The turbulent flow hydrodynamic entry length was found to be 110 pipe diameters. Laminar friction factor data were in good agreement with correlations for purely viscous non-Newtonian fluids. The second set-up consisted of three different diameter tubes with heat transfer length-to-diameter ratio of 282, 489, and 648. The turbulent flow thermal entry length was found to be about 400 pipe diameters. The asymptotic dimensionless heat transfer coefficients were observed to be independent of pipe diameter, polymer molecular weight, and polymer concentration, suggesting the existence of a maximum heat transfer reduction asymptote.