Estimation of energy consumption and transportation characteristics for slurry flow through a horizontal straight pipe using computational fluid dynamics

Abstract

The energy expense of slurry transportation through the pipeline plays a vital role in the economics of various modern industries, such as mining, crude oil, petroleum, and mineral processing. Therefore, it is essential to develop a suitable condition by which we can efficiently transport slurry without affecting the environment and capital costs. To solve these problems, a steady state three-dimensional multiphase Eulerian RNG k–ε turbulence model based on the kinetic theory of granular flow is developed to investigate transportation parameters like pressure distribution, concentration distribution, head loss, settling velocity, and specific energy consumption. Four different particles named bottom ash, glass beads, iron ore, and silica sand with five different sizes, 125, 200, 275, 350, and 440 μm are transported through 3.8 m long straight pipe having 54 mm pipe diameter. The trends of various transportation properties with varying flow velocity (Vm = 1–5 m/s) and efflux concentration (Cw = 40%–60%) are presented. The numerically obtained results for different slurries and water are in good agreement with the past experimental data available in the literature. The computational finding shows that the transportation of bottom ash requires minimum energy, whereas silica sand needs the maximum. In addition, the degree of deviation into transportation properties increases with the particle size, efflux concentration, and flow velocity.