Turbulent flow properties of viscoelastic fluids

The abnormally high resistance of viscoelastic fluids to sudden deformations and to stretching may be expected to cause the structure of turbulent velocity fields in these systems to differ appreciably from those of Newtonian fluids. An analysis based on these considerations is presented and supported using friction factor data for three concentrations of a water soluble polymer. Pressure losses predicted by use of this correlation are within 15% or less of the experimental values, but as all dimensionless groups which influence the results were not varied independently, the correlation developed may not be universally applicable to all fluids. Suggestions for further and more more specific analyses are made.