Electrokinetic aspects of turbulent drag reduction in surfactant solutions

Electrokinetic mechanism of drag reduction of turbulent flow of surfactant solutions is proposed. The surfactant micelles with surface charge attract ions of the solvent or counterions, forming an electric double layer. The ions in the layer are "frozen" in a strongly bonded structure, which reduces the local flow around micelle. The local flow is the strain of small turbulent scale fluctuation. Numerical example indicates that electrokinetic mechanism supplies a reasonable explanation of the drag reduction in surfactant solutions. The proposed model is only the preliminary one, which points on the electrokinetics as an additional mechanism which contributes to the hydrodynamics of surfactant solutions. (C) American Institute of Physics.