Analysis of Pressure Drop Data in Channel Flows Over Foul-Control Coatings

Paper in proceedings, 2019

The two-dimensional channel flow is of great interest for experimental as well as numerical studies. From the experimental perspective test in channel equipment is preferred, because it is simple, practical and offers a favorable economic running cost. Especially with the growing interest in marine coating research, it is critical that coating testing equipment delivers realistic flow conditions, is simple to cut the experimental time and effort and yet accurate. In this sense, the flow channel facility offers more advantages than classical cases for experimental investigations. Whereas from the numerical investigations point of view, channel flow exhibits favorable boundary conditions to save computational effort, while providing a deep insight into details of the flow structures. An initiative is taken at Chalmers university to develop the channel flow (or a flowcell) experimental facility to cater for the need of studies on coatings. Therefore, the current paper, in the first step, describes the design and manufacture of the flowcell. Secondly, it presents the thoroughly conducted verification study of the smooth reference test section to demonstrate that experimental facility holds the measurement expectations. Subsequently, skin friction data for selected foul control coatings obtained from the pressure drop measurements in the flowcell are presented.