Résumé : |
The addition of a small amount of polymers of high molecular weight can lead to a pressure drop decrease in turbulent flows. The polymers successively stretch and coil by interacting with the turbulent structures, which imposes a transient behaviour on the drag reduction (DR). As a result, DR undergoes three stages over time: A, B, and C. In stage A, DR departs from zero and assumes negative values due to a significant polymer stretching at the beginning of the process, which requires energy from the flow. After the minimum DR is reached, the polymers start their coil-stretch cycle and DR increases in response to the development of turbulent structures, achieving a maximum value, which makes for the beginning of stage B. However, during their coil-stretch cycle, polymers can be mechanically degraded as a result of an intense polymer stretching, which reduces their ability to act as energy exchange agents. Hence, when polymer degradation becomes pronounced, DR decreases until achieving a final value. The polymer degradation process characterizes the stage C. In the present work, numerical analyses are conducted aiming to investigate the stages A, B and C. The transient aspects of the polymer induced drag reduction phenomenon are explored with the aid of direct numerical simulations of turbulent plane Poiseulle and Couette flows of viscoelastic FENE-P fluids taking into account a large range of Reynolds number, Weissenberg number and maximum polymer molecule extensibility. Stages A and B are carefully studied from tensor, energy budget and spectral perspectives. A polymer scission model is developed in order to numerically reproduce the stage C. |