Variation of physical and rheological properties of fly ash slurries with particle size and its effect on hydraulic transportation at high concentrations

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ABSTRACTIn thermal power plants, fly ash is collected at the bottom of electrostatic precipitator (ESP) hoppers and transported to common sump for further disposal to the ash pond by slurry pipelines. The fly ash from different fields of ESP hoppers vary widely in particle size as well as quantity. Depending on the sequence of evacuation, the overall particle size distribution (PSD) would vary with time which in turn would affect the head requirement in the high concentration slurry disposal (HCSD) system. Fly ash samples from different fields of ESP hoppers of a thermal power plant have been analyzed for their physical properties namely the PSD, specific gravity, settling characteristics, pH of the slurry, etc. and for rheological properties in the concentration range of 60–70% (by weight). The particle size (dwm) of the fly ash samples decreases with the increase in ESP field, whereas the static settled concentration and specific density increase. The pH values of all samples are almost constant and nonreactive in nature. The rheological properties namely yield stress and Bingham viscosity of the fly ash slurries from different fields of ESP hoppers increase with increase in concentration. Further at any given concentration, these parameters exhibit a strong dependence on particle size. Using these properties and treating the distribution of particles across the pipe cross section as homogeneous in the concentration range of 60–70% (by weight), CFD computations are made to evaluate the head requirement in a HCSD pipeline. The head loss increases with increase in concentration for all fields of ESP hoppers. The present study also shows that head requirement varies significantly by mixing different proportion of fly ash from different ESP fields.