CFD investigation of pressure drop reduction in hydrotransport of multisized zinc tailings slurry through horizontal pipes

Abstract

Zinc is an important metal useful in hydrogen production. Mining of zinc also involves zinc tailings disposal using pipeline transportation which is an energy- and water-intensive process. In this study, the multisized slurry of zinc tailings is modeled using CFD to investigate the flow field characteristics in a straight horizontal pipe fitted with swirl-inducing sections. The primary objective was to study the pressure drop by adding swirl-inducing pipe of different numbers of lobes to the conventional pipe. Nine configurations of multi-lobed swirl-inducing pipes were studied for transport characteristics of solids at three flow rates and three overall solids concentrations. Eulerian-Eulerian modeling with the RNG k-ε turbulence model is employed for simulations. The numerical model is validated for pressure drop against available experimental results, and excellent agreement is achieved. The study shows that 10-lobed swirl-inducing section fitted to the conventional pipe reduces the pressure drop by nearly 35%, offering the potential for further exploration.