Two-phase modelling for sediment water mixtures above the limit deposit velocity in horizontal pipelines

Abstract

Abstract In dredging applications, deep sea mining and land reclamation projects typically large amounts of sediments are transported through pipes in the form of hyper concentrated (40% sediment or more) sediment-water mixtures or slurries. In this paper it is investigated how well a generic Euler-Euler CFD-model is capable to model velocity, concentration profiles and the pressure gradient of sediment above deposition limit velocity in a pipeline. This Euler-Euler solver treats both phases as a continuum with its own momentum and continuity equations. The full kinetic theory for granular flows is accounted for (no algebraic form is used) and is combined with a buoyant k-ε turbulence model for the fluid phase. The influence of the mesh size has been checked and grid convergence is achieved. All numerical schemes used are of second-order accuracy in space. The pressure gradient was calibrated by adjusting the specularity coefficient in one calibration case and kept constant afterwards. Simulations were carried out in a wide range of slurry flow parameters, in situ volume concentration (9–42%), pipe diameter (0.05–0.90 m), particle diameter (90–440 μm) and flow velocity of (3–7 m/s). The model shows satisfactory agreement to experimental data from existing literature.