A Correlation for Heat Transfer to Gas–Solid Suspensions Flowing in Pipes

Abstract

Abstract Heat transfer to flowing gas–solid mixtures in pipes is required in many applications including chemical processing, pneumatic transport, and nuclear reactors but no well-verified method for predicting heat transfer is available. A new correlation is presented, which has been validated with a wide range of data that includes a variety of particles (minerals, metals) in several gases. Particle diameters range from 13 to 1130 µm, pipe diameters 5.1 to 77 mm, and the solids loading ratio of 0–520. Flow orientations include horizontal, vertical up, and vertical down. The new correlation has a mean absolute deviation (MAD) of 18.9% with 630 data points from 20 studies. The same data were also compared with six published correlations. Their MAD ranged from 35% to 57%. Hence, the new correlation is likely to help in more accurate design.