Drag reduction in turbulent flows allows achieving of higher speeds and reducing energy consumption in the motion of submerged objects. An efficient technique for drag reduction uses dilute solutions of microfibers. In this paper, a review of available methods for the simulation of turbulent drag reduction by microfiber additives is presented. To compute the turbulent flow, the direct numerical simulation (DNS) technique is employed. The effect of the fibers on the flow is described by a non-Newtonian stress tensor, involving the distribution of fiber position and orientation. The fiber dynamics is governed by a Fokker-Planck equation. The computation involves a numerical solution of three-dimensional, time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations for the incompressible flow of a non-Newtonian fluid. In this article, various methods for solving the Fokker-Planck equation are reviewed.

Keywords: Turbulent flow, Drag reduction, Direct numerical simulation, Microfiber additives

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