Numerical Simulation of the Flow Field Characteristics of Stationary Two-Pipe Vehicles under Different Spacings

Abstract

The piped hydraulic transportation of tube-contained raw material is a new long- distance transportation technology. This technology has the advantages of high efficiency, energy savings and environmental protection. The research in the published literature has mostly been limited to the speed, flow field, pressure field and energy consumption of a single-pipe vehicle. With the continuous improvement and development of this technology, two-pipe vehicles will become the focus of future research. The change of the vehicle spacing will affect the starting speed, flow field distribution and pressure drop characteristics of the water flow within the pipeline; thus, a numerical simulation is used in this work to study the hydraulic characteristics of stationary two-pipe vehicles under different spacings and compare them with physical experiments. The results show that the simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results, which indicates that it is feasible to study two-pipe vehicles using numerical simulation. The results also show that, as the vehicle spacing increases, the interaction between the two-pipe vehicles gradually weakens. When the vehicle spacing reaches 4 l (where l represents the length of a single-pipe vehicle), the interaction between the two-pipe vehicles becomes negligible. There is no vortex shedding in the pipeline under different vehicle spacings. This study provides a reference for choosing the proper spacing between two-pipe vehicles and provides a theoretical basis for further research on the hydraulic characteristics of two-pipe vehicles in motion.