Study on Flow Characteristics of Multisized Sand Slurry in Straight Pipe and Bends

Abstract

The hydraulic slurry transportation system is mainly used in the industry, to transport the solid material in the form of slurry through a pipeline. The hydraulic transportation pumps are used to transport the slurry in the pipelines. The slurry transportation system is widely accepted as it reduces the environmental pollution, ecological disturbance and saves energy consumption. River water from upstream of reservoir is usually collected and conveyed through penstocks to turbine for hydroelectric power generation. Sediments are usually presents in river water and the flow dynamics of sediment laden water is different from flow characteristics of only water. The solid materials present in slurry make the transportation inefficient because of large pressure drop, settlement of solids, erosion of pipe surface, increased power consumption, granular pressure, choking, blockage, etc. The efficient movement of required quantity of water through a pipeline having various transitions requires proper designing of slurry transportation system. The amount of erosion of the pipeline surface mainly depends upon flow velocity, solid concentration, particle size, operational time, angle of attack, surface roughness, surface hardness, etc. For an effective transportation system, the study of the impacts of these parameters on the flow of slurry and pipeline is very important. The present study is focused to determine the influence of the flow parameters upon the solid particle erosion and pressure drop of the pipeline. Particle size distribution (PSD), slurry settling characteristics, pH, Scanning Electron Microscopy, specific gravity, energy-dispersive ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction were carried out for collected sand sample. It is observed that, around 34% of the sand samples are finer than 106 and#956;m, 2% are finer than 53 and#956;m and 32% of sand samples are lying between 106 and 53 and#956;m. Around 68% of the particles are observed to be coarser than 150 and#956;m and 34% of which are within a spectrum of 106-150 and#956;m.