Modelling of two phase solid-liquid flow in horizontal pipe using computational fluid dynamics technique

Abstract

In this paper three-dimensional fluid flow characteristics of slurry pipeline has been studied using commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code FLUENT at different velocities and solid concentrations. An Euler-Lagrange multiphase approach was used to simulate the flow of bottom ash slurry in a 50 mm diameter straight pipeline. Simulations were carried out with bottom ash at velocity range of 1–3 ms–1. The solid concentration of bottom ash particles was varied from 40 to 60% (by weight). The simulations were carried out using SST k-ω turbulence model and the results obtained were compared with experimental results. It was found that the SST k-ω turbulence model shows good agreement with experimental data. Numerical simulation results show that the pressure drop in pipeline increases non-linearly with increase in velocity and solid concentration.