Laminar and Turbulent Transition of Fine-Grained Slurries

Abstract

An experimental investigation of flow behavior of fine-grained highly concentrated slurries, i.e., water mixtures of kaolin and fly ash from a fluidic-type combustion chamber produced during the process of desulphurization, in horizontal straight pipes is presented. A pipe loop with hydraulically smooth stainless steel pipes was used to measure the slurry flow parameters. Kaolin slurry has time-independent, yield pseudo-plastic response for volume concentrations higher than about 6%. In contrast, fluidic fly ash-gypsum water mixture is time dependent and showed substantial decrease of flow resistance due to the effect of shearing during the initial period of pumping. An intensive shearing of concentrated fluidic fly ash-gypsum slurry results in a substantial reduction of the hydraulic gradient in the laminar region and in a marked shift of the laminar/turbulent transition point towards a lower velocity value. After shearing in a turbulent regime a reduction in the hydraulic gradient at the transition point reached about 50% of its original value. The transition from laminar to turbulent regime results in an abrupt increase of flow resistance. The flow patterns become fundamentally different for the two regimes. It was found that pressure fluctuation could well indicate the laminar/turbulent transition. The transition from laminar to turbulent flow is very important for accurate and efficient design and operation of dense slurry pipelining. The optimum operational condition is slightly above the laminar/turbulent transition point, where flow conditions are often very attractive from an economic point of view.