Prediction of Concentration Distribution in Pipeline Flow of Highly Concentrated Slurry

The Kaushal and Tomita's (2002a Kaushal , D. R. , and Y. Tomita . 2002a . An improved method for predicting pressure drop along slurry pipeline . Particulate Science and Technology 20 : 1 – 20 .[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) model, which has already been found satisfactory for broadly graded multisized particulate zinc tailings slurry with moderate concentration up to 26%, flow velocity up to 3.5 m/s in 105 mm diameter pipe, mean diameter 140 μm, and geometric standard deviation of particles of 4.0, is tested for concentration distribution data collected by Kaushal et al. (2005 Kaushal , D. R. , K. Sato , T. Toyota , K. Funatsu , and Y. Tomita . 2005 . Effect of particle size distribution on pressure drop and concentration profile in pipeline flow of highly concentrated slurry . International Journal of Multiphase Flow. 31 : 809 – 823 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) on two sizes of glass beads, of which mean diameter and geometric standard deviation are 440 μm and 1.2, and 125 μm and 1.15, respectively, with concentration up to 50% and flow velocity up to 5 m/s in 54.9 mm diameter pipe. Kaushal and Tomita's (2002a) model gives more asymmetric concentration distributions. A modified model is proposed by alleviating some of the restrictive assumptions used in the existing model. Comparison of experimental data by Kaushal et al. (2005 Kaushal , D. R. , K. Sato , T. Toyota , K. Funatsu , and Y. Tomita . 2005 . Effect of particle size distribution on pressure drop and concentration profile in pipeline flow of highly concentrated slurry . International Journal of Multiphase Flow. 31 : 809 – 823 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), Gillies and Shook (1994 Gillies , R. G. , and C. A. Shook . 1994 . Concentration distributions of sand slurries in horizontal pipe flow . Particulate Science Technology 12 : 45 – 69 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), and Matousek (2009 Matousek , V. 2009 . Concentration profiles and solids transport above stationary deposit in enclosed conduit . Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 135 : 1101 – 1106 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) with the proposed model is satisfactory.