The Impact of Adding Titanium Oxide to Polyethylene Oxide to Improve Drag Reduction Percentage Using a Closed-Loop Recirculation System

Abstract

This research emphasizes adding titanium oxide (TiO2) to polyethylene oxide (PEO) as drag
improvers to find out their effects on the drag reduction percentage (%DR) employing a closed loop
recirculation scheme (large scale). The tests were applied at different concentrations around (50, 150, 300,
600, and 1200 ppm) and in different flow rates around (3-6 m/s). The core solutions were employed
individually and in the complex. All experiments were under a turbulent flow state. The findings show that
the greatest drag reduction occurs in the complex solution (TiO2+PEO) around (87%), with lower
degradation and the highest range of Reynolds numbers. The microstructure in the complex solution
(TiO2+PEO) was tested utilizing transmission electron microscopy (TEM) as well as scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) techniques. The resulting images show the diffusion of the nanoparticle to the polymer
chain to compose an aggregate structure.