Molecular Insight into the Possible Mechanism of Drag Reduction of Surfactant Aqueous Solution in Pipe Flow

Kobayashi, Yusei; Gomyo, Hirotaka; Arai, Noriyoshi

doi:10.3390/ijms22147573

Open AccessArticle

Molecular Insight into the Possible Mechanism of Drag Reduction of Surfactant Aqueous Solution in Pipe Flow

by

Yusei Kobayashi

^*

,

Hirotaka Gomyo

and

Noriyoshi Arai

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(14), 7573; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22147573

Submission received: 7 June 2021 / Revised: 3 July 2021 / Accepted: 12 July 2021 / Published: 15 July 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Molecular Simulation)

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Abstract

The phenomenon of drag reduction (known as the “Toms effect”) has many industrial and engineering applications, but a definitive molecular-level theory has not yet been constructed. This is due both to the multiscale nature of complex fluids and to the difficulty of directly observing self-assembled structures in nonequilibrium states. On the basis of a large-scale coarse-grained molecular simulation that we conducted, we propose a possible mechanism of turbulence suppression in surfactant aqueous solution. We demonstrate that maintaining sufficiently large micellar structures and a homogeneous radial distribution of surfactant molecules is necessary to obtain the drag-reduction effect. This is the first molecular-simulation evidence that a micellar structure is responsible for drag reduction in pipe flow, and should help in understanding the mechanisms underlying drag reduction by surfactant molecules under nonequilibrium conditions.

Keywords: drag reduction; surfactant molecules; self-assembly; coarse-grained molecular simulation

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MDPI and ACS Style

Kobayashi, Y.; Gomyo, H.; Arai, N. Molecular Insight into the Possible Mechanism of Drag Reduction of Surfactant Aqueous Solution in Pipe Flow. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22, 7573. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22147573

AMA Style

Kobayashi Y, Gomyo H, Arai N. Molecular Insight into the Possible Mechanism of Drag Reduction of Surfactant Aqueous Solution in Pipe Flow. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2021; 22(14):7573. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22147573

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kobayashi, Yusei, Hirotaka Gomyo, and Noriyoshi Arai. 2021. "Molecular Insight into the Possible Mechanism of Drag Reduction of Surfactant Aqueous Solution in Pipe Flow" International Journal of Molecular Sciences 22, no. 14: 7573. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22147573

APA Style

Kobayashi, Y., Gomyo, H., & Arai, N. (2021). Molecular Insight into the Possible Mechanism of Drag Reduction of Surfactant Aqueous Solution in Pipe Flow. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22(14), 7573. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22147573

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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Molecular Insight into the Possible Mechanism of Drag Reduction of Surfactant Aqueous Solution in Pipe Flow

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