Slurries, basically regarded as two – phase (solid – liquid) mixtures of ore and the carrier medium, generally water, are transported through underground pipelines. The rheological properties of the slurry also play an important role in determining the salient parameters of hydraulic transport such as head loss and pressure drop in commercial slurry pipelines. CFD has provided an upper hand in mathematical modelling and flow simulation, as it provides accurate and dependable flow simulation results. This article primarily focuses on determining the pressure drop across the ends of the pipeline, as slurry flows through it, and to establish a graphical depiction of the various simulations made using different set of conditions. The pressure drop for R500 radius of curvature of bends was found to be lying between 4.27% to 6.53%, as the bend angles increased from 3° to 18°, while the same was found to be lying between 3.49% to 6.2% for R2500 radius of curvature of bends. The pressure drop for R500 radius of curvature of bends was found to be lying between 4.91% to 8.3%, as the inlet velocity of slurry increased from 0.5 m/s to 3m/s, while the same was found to be lying between 5.05% to 8.63% for R2500 radius of curvature of bends.
Erosion in multiphase flow due to the effect of solid particles is a key factor in wearing of industrial pipelines. In recent years, industries are using Computational Fluid Dynamics to study erosion wear in pipelines. Researchers have investigated various factors that affect the erosion of pipelines including particle size, velocity, coating material, fluid viscosity, region of pipe (bends/fittings convex or concave), etc. This paper investigates the effect of various slurry parameters on the rate of material erosion in the pipeline, under different sets of operation conditions. Silica sand (density= 2650 kg/m3 ) slurry was considered for the simulations, mixed in water at different volumetric concentration (12%, 24% and 36%), with an inlet velocity of 2.74 m/s and 3.56 m/s. The particle size was considered constant at 225µm, 450µm and 675µm, respectively. Simulations are done in ANSYS-FLUENT software under Eulerian two-phase model with k-ε approach. Results showed that the erosion rate followed the trend of increasing with an increase in all the above mentioned varying parameters as it varied from 8.25 mm/yr to 18.93 mm/yr. It was also hinted that as particle size reduced, the influence of velocity as a contributing parameter reduced which is explained by the fact that the mixture is leading from suspension state to colloidal state.
Pipe bends are an integral part of transportation system as they help by providing flexibility in the path. In this paper, flow of mono-dispersed particles with carrier flow is simulated using Computational Fluid Dynamics by implementing Eulerian two-phase model in FLUENT. This paper is a forward stepping stone as it depicts the effect of pipeline bend on flow characteristic such as erosion rate, concentration profile, wall shear stress, etc. after numerous researches on pressure drop and velocity profiles. In this paper, a two-phase fluid of silica sand, having mean diameter of 450 µm (density = 2650 kg/m3 ), and water are mixed at the ratio of 8.82% solid concentration by weight and flown through a pipeline with diameter 53.0 mm and the optimum pipe bend ratio of 5.60 for minimum pressure loss.
In this paper, the rheological parameters, characterisation, and the rheological behaviour of mineral ore slurry are reviewed and discussed in detail. Rheology is a study of flow phenomenon of matter, parameters like viscosity and the relationship between stress, strain, and time for the matter are helpful in defining rheology, these parameters have helped in classification of fluids into two broad categories - Newtonian and Non-Newtonian fluids. The rheological characteristics have a great impact in design and operation of the pipelines. This paper has a special emphasis on the iron ore slurry and its rheological behaviors which are highly affected by several physical and chemical properties (particle shape, particle size distribution, shear rate, pH value, solid concentration, viscosity, and slurry temperature) which also have been explained in particulars. The importance of rheology in slurry transportation makes it really important to define ways for controlling rheology that have proven to be helpful in stabilizing the slurry thus making the operation more efficient. Rheology is a major factor that affects the process of pipeline transportation of slurry which makes it such an important topic of study and research.
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