• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.1189-1196
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• 1988

Thermal entrance lengths of turbulent tube flow for viscoelastic polymer solutions are investigated experimentally in the recirculating flow system with tubes of inside diameters 8.5mm(L/D=710) and 10.3mm(L/D=1158), respectively. In the present system, the hydrodynamic and thermal boundary layers develop simultaneously from the beginning of the test section. To provide the boundary condition of constant heat flux at the wall, the test tubes are heated directly by electricity. The polymer solution used in the current study is 1000 wppm aqueous solution of polyacrylamide(Separan AP-273). The apparent viscosity of the polymer solutions circulating in the flow system are measured by the capillary tube viscometer at regular time intervals. Thermal entrance lengths vary due to the rate of degradation. The entrance lengths of degraded polymer solutions are about 500~600 times the diameter. However, the entrance lengths of fresh polymer solutions are greater than the lengths of the test tubes used in this study suggesting that thermal entrance lengths for viscoelastic polymer solutions are greater than 1100 tube times the diameters. Friction factor is almost insensitive to the degradation, but the heat transfer $j_{H}$-factor is affected seriously by degradation. Based on the present experimental data of fresh solutions a correlation for the heat transfer $j_{H}$-factor is presented.ted.