Pressure losses associated with slurry flow in horizontal pipelines
Abstract
The flow of solid liquid mixtures (slurries) has attracted much attention in research
work because of its importance to industry. Prediction of pressure losses associated
with slurry flow helps pipe designers select the correct pipe sizes for optimum energy
consumption, equipment sizing and reliable operation of the pipeline networks.
Many workers developed empirical correlations, but due to the randomness of the
problem they seem of limited use in design applications because they do not contain
an assessment except by trial and error, which is costly.
The existence of more than one particle size poses more complexities to the slurry
flow problem but it is in need in practical applications. The aims of this work are
justified under the light of the observations on the state of the art in slurry transport.
An experimental program is designed to highlight the effects of this problem through
a predetermined set of test runs. The variables are grouped to optimise the number of
experiments and to remove the effect of dimensions on the prediction method
The test rig is built to serve the aims of this exercise and test runs conducted, results
grouped and discussed for polyfractional slurries. A mathematical model is
developed in the form of an empirical correlation. Statistical tests are employed to
verify the goodness of fit.
Finally, conclusions and recommendations for further work are listed
Publication date
2003Published version
https://doi.org/10.18745/th.14146https://doi.org/10.18745/th.14146