Effect of Particle Size on Pipeline Flow of Solid-Liquid Slurry With Fixed Particle Size Distribution

The transport properties of solid-liquid slurries having the same well-defined particle size distribution but different median particle sizes have been studied in a 22-mm I.D. horizontal pipeline flow loop. The solid-liquid slurries were glass beads-water mixtures. The particle size distribution of solids was Rosin-Rammler with median diameters of 50 mm and 250 mm. The relationship between the pressure drop in the straight horizontal sections of the flow loop and the mean slurry velocity was determined for different solids volume concentrations varying from 4.5 to 25% and mean slurry velocity ranging from 0.5 to 2.5 m/s. Critical deposition velocity was measured from visual observations. An existing empirical model of Wasp et al. that predicts the pressure gradient for a single-species slurry flow in a horizontal pipeline was used to describe the pressure drop data. The Oroskar-Turian correlation for critical velocity was used for comparison with the measured critical velocities.