Study on Large Particle Slurry Transport in Inclined Pipes With Pulsating Flow for Subsea Mining

Abstract

Abstract For subsea mining, it is important to predict the pressure loss in oscillating pipes with pulsating slurry flow for the safe and reliable operation of ore lifting. The configuration of pipe is expected to have not only vertical but also inclined parts. In the present paper, the authors focused on the pulsating internal slurry flow in static inclined pipes and derived the mathematical model to predict the pressure loss in such conditions. The slurry transport experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of pulsating slurry flow on the pressure loss in inclined pipes. In the experiment, the data related to slurry flow was measured by the differential pressure gauges, the electromagnetic flowmeter and the ultrasound monitoring. The model derived was validated by a comparison with measured data. The measured pressure loss has an outstanding component with pulsating period of water flow with relatively small higher order harmonic components. Although the prediction model derived in the present study has a tendency to overestimate the pressure loss for larger inclination angles, the calculated pressure loss is within the acceptable range given the simplicity of the model.