EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON PRESSURE DROP CHARACTERISTICS OF BI-MODAL SLURRY FLOW IN A STRAIGHT HORIZONTAL PIPE [ ]


In the present experimental investigation, the pressure drop measurements are done over a length of 4.0 m in 50 mm NB diameter pipe line under fully developed flow conditions using a pilot plant test loop for narrow sized silica sand slurry and bi-modal slurry. The bi-modal slurry consists of narrow sized silica sand and fly ash as fine particles in different proportions keeping the overall efflux concentration. The deposition velocity characteristics of the abovementioned slurries are also measured experimentally. For bi-model slurry, at an efflux concentration of 20.4% (by weight), the pressure drop reduces considerably with addition of the fine particles and the reduction in pressure drop is more at lower velocities. Further, at efflux concentration of 33.9% (by weight), the pressure drop reduces at higher rate for low velocity region as compared to high velocity region with addition of the fine particles. The bi-model slurry shows slight reduction in deposition velocity with increase in percentage of fines for both efflux concentrations.