Abstract:

The present work shows the slurry flow characteristics of glass beads having density 2470 kg/m3 at different Prandtl number through a horizontal pipeline. The simulation is conducted by Eulerian two-phase model using RNG k-ε turbulence closure in available commercial software ANSYS FLUENT. The transportation of solid particulates has the settling behaviour in the slurry pipeline and that leads to the sedimentation and blockage of the pipeline resulting more power and pressure drop in the pipeline. Therefore, it is important to know the transport capability of the solid particulates at different Prandtl fluids to minimise the pressure loss. The fluid properties at four Prandtl numbers i.e. 1.34, 2.14, 3.42 and 5.83 is used to carry the solid concentration ranges from 30-50 % (by volume) at mean flow-velocity ranging from 3 to 5 ms-1 . The obtained computational results are validated with the published data in the literature. The results show that the pressure-drop rises with escalation in flow velocity and solid concentration at all Prandtl number. It is found that the suspension stability enhancement is considerable for lower range of Prandtl number and decreases for higher range of Prandtl number. Finally, glass beads concentration contours, velocity contours, concentration profile, velocity profiles and pressure drop are predicted to understand the slurry flow for chosen Prandtl numbers.

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