Research on Influencing Factors and Prediction of Drag Reducing Agent Effectiveness in Oil Pipeline Transportation

This study is a comprehensive and in-depth investigation of the performance of drag-reducing agents (DRA) for pipeline oil products. Systematic experiments were conducted using a specially constructed indoor loop experimental device, using drag reduction rate as a metric. During the experimental process, variables such as DRA concentration and Reynolds number were precisely regulated to analyze the mechanism and influence law of these factors on the drag reduction rate. Based on a large amount of experimental data, a drag reduction rate prediction fitting formula is proposed that integrally considers relevant parameters such as drag-reducing agent concentration, Reynolds number, temperature, pipe diameter, and oil properties. The structure of the formula is designed to incorporate the mechanism and influencing factors of the DRA, and specific coefficients are introduced to express the relationship between the drag reduction rate and various aspects. Subsequently, the formula is fitted and validated using indoor experimental data and field data from actual crude oil pipeline transportation. The results show that the proposed fitting formula has high accuracy and reliability under different operating conditions. This formula and the accompanying validation method are expected to be effective tools for predicting drag reduction rates. This study provides a solid theoretical basis and strong technical support for the optimization of the additive amount of DRA in the crude oil pipeline transportation process and the precise regulation of transportation parameters, which is expected to be widely used and deeply promoted in the pipeline transportation link in the field of petroleum industry, and provides a reference example for the subsequent related research and technical improvement.