An experimental investigation of the behavior of solid particles during their motion in smooth and dimpled pipes

Results are given of LDA measurements of averaged and fluctuation velocities of glass particles during their deposition in smooth and dimpled narrow pipes. Experiments reveal a decrease in the axial component of averaged velocity of particles and a significant increase in fluctuation velocities of particles during their motion in a pipe with dimples.     

Wavelet multi-resolution analysis on particle dynamics in a horizontal pneumatic conveying

The particle velocities are measured by the high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) in the acceleration and fully developed regimes of a horizontal pneumatic conveying. Based on the measured particle fluctuation velocities, continuous wavelet transform and one-dimensional orthogonal wavelet decomposition were applied to reveal particle dynamics in terms of time frequency analysis, the contribution from wavelet level to the particle fluctuation energy, spatial correlation and probability distribution of wavelet levels. The time frequency characteristics of particle fluctuation velocity suggest that the small-scale particle motions are suppressed and tend to transfer into large scale particle motions from acceleration regime to fully developed regime. In the near bottom part of pipe, the fluctuation energy of axial particle motion is mainly contributed from the wavelet levels of relatively low frequency, however, in the near top part of pipe, wavelet levels of relatively high frequency make comparable contribution to the axial particle fluctuation energy in the suspension flow regime, and this contribution decreases as particles are accelerated along the pipe. The low frequency wavelet levels exhibit large spatial correlation, and this spatial correlation increases as the particles flow from acceleration regime to fully developed regime. The skewness factor and kurtosis factor of wavelet level suggest that the deviation of Gaussian probability distribution is associated with the central frequency of wavelet level, and the deviation from Gaussian distribution is more evident as increasing central frequency. The higher wavelet levels can be linked to small sale particle motions, which lead to irregular particle fluctuation velocity.     

An experimental study on a horizontal-vertical pneumatic conveying system using oscillatory flow

To reduce the power consumption of a horizontal-vertical pneumatic conveying system, an oscillator is mounted with a 45° oblique plane through the pipe axis in this study. This experimental study focuses on the effect of oscillatory flow using the oscillator on the horizontal-vertical pneumatic conveying system in terms of the overall pressure drop of the system, power consumption, local pressure drop, and particle velocity. Compared with conventional pneumatic conveying (axial-flow), the pressure drop and power consumption can be reduced using the oscillatory flow in a lower air velocity range. Meanwhile, the particle axial velocity of the oscillatory flow is higher than that of the axial-flow near the bottom of pipe. This outcome indicates that the accelerating effect of oscillatory flow is obvious near the bottom of the pipe, and the particle vertical velocity of the oscillatory flow is positive, whereas the particle vertical velocity of the axial-flow is almost negative. This result shows that the particles of the oscillatory flow are suspended sufficiently, but the particles of the axial-flow have a tendency of deposition. Furthermore, the fluctuation intensity of the particle velocity of the oscillatory flow is higher than that of the axial-flow, especially near the bottom of the pipe.     

Experimental analysis on particle fluctuation velocity in a horizontal air–solid two-phase pipe flow having a dune model

To further elucidate the mechanism of energy-conserving conveying in horizontal pneumatic conveying with the dune model, the high-speed particle image velocimetry is applied to measure particle fluctuation velocity near the minimum conveying velocity of the conventional pneumatic conveying. This study focuses on the effect of mounting dune models on the horizontal pneumatic conveying in terms of power spectrum, autocorrelation coefficients, two-point correlation coefficients, fluctuation intensity of particle velocity, skewness factor, and probability density function. It is found that the power spectrum peaks with the dune model are larger than those of the nondune system, suggesting the acceleration and suspending efficiency of the dune model, especially dune models mounted at the bottom of the pipe. Meanwhile, the profiles of particle fluctuation velocity intensity indicate that the large particle fluctuating energy is generated due to mounting the dune model so that the particles are more easily accelerated and suspended. This is one of the important reasons why the mounted dune model results in a low pressure drop and low minimum conveying velocity. Based on the distribution of skewness factor and probability density function, it is found that the particle fluctuation velocities of all cases follow the Gaussian distribution in the lower and middle parts of the pipe. The particle fluctuation velocities in the case of the dune models mounted at the bottom of the pipe obey the Gaussian-type fluctuation more.     

Measurements of Particle Velocity and Concentration for Dilute Swirling Gas-Solid Flow in a Vertical Pipe

Experimental studies concerning the characterization of a dilute swirling gas-solid flow were carried out in a vertical pipe with a height of 12 m and an inner diameter of 80 mm. Polyethylene pellets, with mean diameter of 3.2 mm, were used as test particles. The initial swirl number varied from 0.0 to 0.94, the mean gas velocity varied from 9 to 25 m/s, and the solid-gas ratio varied from 0.2 to 0.7. In this study, the particle velocity and concentration profiles were measured by the photographic image technique for both nonswirling (axial) and swirling gas-solid flows. It was found that the particle velocity of the swirling flow is lower than that of the axial flow in the range of high gas velocity; however, high particle velocity in the former flow can be obtained in the range of low gas velocity. The particle velocity profiles, on the other hand, were found to be nearly uniform in both the swirling and axial flows. The particle concentration profiles in the swirling flow exhibited symmetric distributions with respect to the pipe axis, and a higher particle concentration appeared in the vicinity of the wall located in the acceleration region.

gas-solid two-phase flow particle concentration particle velocity pipeline swirling flow     

Effects of particle–particle collisions on sudden expansion gas-particle flows via a two-phase kinetic energy-particle temperature model

In the framework of the gas–particle two-fluid mode, an improved gas–particle two-phase kinetic energy incorporating into a particles collision model (k–k_p–θ) is proposed to study the sudden expansion gas–particle turbulent flows in a cylindrical pipe section. Anisotropy of gas–solid two-phase stress and the interaction between two-phase stresses are considered by means of a transport equation of two-phase fluctuation velocity correlation. Xu and Zhou [10] experimental data is used to quantitatively validate k–k_p–θ and k–k_p model for analysis the effects of particle–particle collision. Numerical predicted results show that time-averaged velocity, fluctuation velocity of gas and particle and correlation of two-phase fluctuation velocity considering particles collision are better than those of the without particle temperature model and they are in good agreement with experimental data. Larger particle concentration and particle temperature located at shear layer adjacent to wall surface and re-circulation region. Energy dissipation due to smaller scale particles collision contributes to homogeneous distribution of Reynolds stress and affects the particle transportation behavior together with particle inertia.     

The dynamic stability of a pipe conveying a pulsatile flow

This investigation concern the small displacements of a pipe conveying a pressurized flow whose velocity possesses a harmonic fluctuation about a mean value. A new derivation of the fluid forces is used to obtain the partial differential equation of motion. General equations applicable to any set of boundary conditions are specialized for the case of a simply supported pipe and the Galerkin method is utilized to find solutions. An analysis of the case of steady flow shows that the pipe exhibits the divergence type of instability which is predictable by static structural theory. In the presence of pulsatile flow the pipe has regions of dynamic instability whose extent increases with increased amounts of fluctuation. The results have great similarity to those for beams carrying pulsating end forces.     

Multi-scale analysis on particle dynamic of vertical curved 90° bend in a horizontal-vertical pneumatic conveying system

To reveal the particle dynamic characteristic in the bend, high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) and wavelet transform were used to measure and analyze the particle velocity in a horizontal-vertical pneumatic conveying system. The pressure drop and particle velocity are analyzed to elucidate the macroscopic motion properties of particles in the different radius ratio bend firstly. Then the methods of continuous wavelet transform and one-dimensional discrete orthogonal wavelet transform are used to analyze the particle dynamic characteristic in the different regions of the bend pipe in terms of time–frequency characteristics of particle fluctuation velocity, fluctuation energy distributions of wavelet components, and auto-correlation of various frequencies. The results show that the particles are mainly small-scale motion in the rapidly decreasing region, while the large-scale motion increases in the accelerating region near the inlet and the stable region near the outlet. And the results of the wavelet component show that the acceleration and deceleration of particles in the bend will decrease the proportion of high-frequency fluctuation energy. The auto-correlation coefficient of the high-frequency component decays slower and has a longer period at the critical position of the three regions.     

Analysis of Turbulent Motion of a Liquid in a Pipe Using the Dimensional Theory

The method of dimensional theory is used to derive expressions for the turbulent viscosity and, as a consequence, for the profile of longitudinal velocity of liquid flow in a pipe.     

竖直管道内冰浆流体流动特性的数值模拟

为研究竖直管道内冰浆流体流动特性,采用基于颗粒动力学理论的两相流双流体模型,通过CFD模拟研究了竖直管道内冰浆流体的等温流动过程。结果表明,在竖直管道内冰浆湍流输送过程中,流速沿管道中心轴线处近似呈对称分布。当冰浆流速较低时,管道截面处冰粒子的速度分布梯度较小,浓度分布趋于均匀,而随着冰浆流速升高,冰粒子的流场及浓度场均呈现出一定的梯级分布:管道近壁面处冰粒子浓度较低,而管道中心处冰粒子浓度较高,并在略偏于管道中心轴线位置处冰粒子浓度达到峰值。竖直管道内冰浆流体的流向变化对速度分布影响较弱,但对冰粒子浓度分布会产生一定影响,进而使得冰浆流体的管道压降在不同流向时存在着一定差异。     

Laminar boundary layer with dispersed impurity entrained from a plate surface

A model of a gas-dispersed laminar boundary layer (LBL) on a semiinfinite plate is proposed. Unlike the majority of published works, in which the dispersed impurity permeates through an external LBL boundary, in the present work the source of the dispersed phase is the particles entrained by a flow from a surface in the flow with a small longitudinal velocity. In the LBL, the particles get into a region where the longitudinal velocity of the carrier-medium is large; therefore the Safman lift force is directed upwards and tends to carry them out of the LBL. As a result of increasing the dispersed impurity velocity, their concentration rapidly falls at a distance from the surface. Downward from the flow, the flux of porticles entrained from the surface decreases to zero, the LBL becomes a one-phase flow.Kaliningrad Engineering Institute for Fishing Industry and the Fishery. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 63, No. 2, pp. 189–193, August, 1992.     

Motion of Large Particles in a Horizontal Pneumatic Pipe

The horizontal pneumatic transport of large particles with particle to pipe diameter ratio of 0.6 and particle densities of 928 kg/m³ and 2193 kg/m³ was examined experimentally and numerically. The pipe diameter and length were 10 mm and 8.8 m, respectively. The mean air velocity was between 14.2 m/s and 23.0 m/s and the number feed rate of particle was almost constant at seven per second. In this study, the method of characteristics was used for the simulation of gas flow, which considered not only the particle-particle collisions but also the particle-wall collisions. It is found that particle transport is possible even when the mean air velocity is smaller than the terminal settling velocity of particle's and that the arrival time intervals at the downstream section are not always uniform although the particles are fed uniformly. Furthermore, the velocity difference between different density particles becomes small as the mean air velocity decreases, because the particle velocities become uniform due to particle-particle collisions, and the ratio of particle velocity to the mean air velocity is almost independent of air velocity. In addition, it is shown that the particle-wall collision at the pipe joint due to pipeline misalignment can be one of the sources of bouncing motion of particles as shown by simulation results.     

Measurement of the properties of fluids inside pipes using guided longitudinal waves

A new technique for measuring the longitudinal bulk velocity and shear viscosity of a fluid contained inside a pipe without a need for extracting a sample from inside of the pipe is presented. It is based on the measurement of the change of the dispersion properties and attenuation of longitudinal guided modes propagating in the pipe due to the presence of the fluid. The technique to extract longitudinal bulk velocity and shear viscosity is discussed and experimentally demonstrated by measuring both low-viscosity (distilled water and glycerol) and highly viscous fluids. The measured properties of glycerol agreed well with conventional methods and literature data for both the longitudinal bulk velocity (within 0.8%) and the viscosity (within 4%). For highly viscous fluid, the accuracy of the velocity measurement was found to be reduced slightly (within 1%), and the viscosity measurement became more accurate (within 1%).     

Experimental investigation on hydrodynamic behavior in a spouted bed with longitudinal vortex generators

A spouted bed with longitudinal vortex generator (LVG) of sphere was built to enhance radial movement of particles. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was applied to explore effects of longitudinal vortex flow and physical properties of particles on their radial velocity in a 152-mm-diametered spouted bed. The results show that, Compared with the conventional spouted bed, the existence of longitudinal vortex generator gives rise to a large amount of secondary fine vortex flow in the cross section of spouted bed. The enhancement factors of particles movement η with different particle densities are all greater than 1. The smaller the particle density, the more significant the effect of the longitudinal vortex on the radial velocity of the particles. The single-row LVGs can produce a good radial enhancement effect of particle movement when the particle handling capacity is small (H₀ = 165 mm). With the increase of the height of the static bed (H₀), the enhancement of the radial velocity of particles in the spouted bed by multi-row LVGs (three rows) increases gradually, which indicates that the multi-row LVGs have a better overall effect on the enhancement of particle motion in the spouted bed with more particle handling capacity (H₀ = 195 mm, 225 mm).     

Fully Stratified Particle-Laden Flow in Horizontal Circular Pipe

This article describes the results of an experimental measurement and visualization of coarse-grained fully stratified particle-water mixtures. This article focuses on the study of the carrier liquid velocity field and behavior and local velocities of conveyed particles. Glass balls and graded pebble gravel of 6 mm mean diameter were conveyed by water in a horizontal smooth pipe loop with a transparent pipe viewing section of inner diameter 40 mm. The measurements were performed in the smooth pipe and the pipe with rough stationary bed created by two layers of spherical particles of the same mean diameter as the conveyed particles. Particle movement along the pipe bottom was studied and the effect of the stationary bed on local velocity values of the carrier liquid and conveyed particles were evaluated. It was concluded that in the flow with stationary bed the maximum liquid velocity is markedly shifted from the pipe center to its top. The coarse-grained particles moved principally in a layer close to the pipe invert, for higher flow velocities particle saltation becomes the dominant mode of transport.     

Design and modelling of a self-dispersing twisted pipe to mitigate settling in coal water suspension

The hydrotransport of the industrial powders and bulk solids such as minerals, mineral tailings, coal and ash is considered to be an efficient mode of transportation. The pipelines ranging from a few meters to few kilometers in length are used for such transportation purposes. If not well addressed, the issue of particle settling in such pipelines can lead to blockage and even bursting of the pipeline due to the continued deposition of the solids. The present study proposes the introduction of a twisted pipe section of a suitable length and geometry, that produces enough turbulence in the flow, sufficient for the re-dispersion of the already settled particles and check their further deposition. To achieve this objective, 5 different geometries (each having 4 different lengths) of twisted pipes are designed and used to model the dynamics of the particles’ flow through them and in their downstream region. A low influx velocity (where particle settling is expected) of 0.5 m/s is selected for all the cases and the influx solids’ mass concentration ranges from 40 to 60%. The results generated by the commercial CFD software are in good agreement with the experimental data. The parameters viz. mixing index, pressure loss, and specific energy consumption are evaluated to choose the best design of the twisted pipe section. The 0.2 m long 3 lobes twisted pipe section is found to deliver the suspension of highest homogeneity at the cost of a slight increase in pressure loss and specific energy consumption. The present solution ensures the mitigation of particles’ settling and the other related issues.     

Wavelet packet analysis of particle response to turbulent fluctuation

The fluid–particle synchronous measurements in a boundary layer wind tunnel were conducted to determine the particle concentration response to turbulent velocity fluctuation. Three groups of natural sand samples (diameter of 300–500, 100–125 and 63–80 μm) were employed in the experiments. Consecutive instants of saltating particles were recorded by using a high-speed digital camera at 2000 frames per second and a constant-temperature hot-wire anemometer was used to measure the turbulent fluctuation simultaneously. The particle concentration in the saltation layer was calculated by the dynamic-threshold binarization algorithm. The results confirm that the concentration fluctuation is a fairly typical stochastic process, and the low-frequency variation of particle concentration is closely related to the turbulent fluctuation. Moreover, a method was developed to apply wavelet packet transform to two-phase data analysis from the viewpoint of frequency-domain energy structure. Further analysis shows that the concentration fluctuation is predominant in the low frequency band less than 250 Hz. In addition, the particle concentration response to the turbulent fluctuation is significantly correlated with the particle diameter. For the fine particles (63–80 μm), medium particles (100–125 μm) and coarse particles (300–500 μm), the highest response frequencies of particle concentration variation to the turbulent fluctuation are 60, 40 and 30 Hz, respectively, which demonstrates that an appropriate sampling rate is crucial in saltation measurement. These qualitative and quantitative results are beneficial to understand the fluid–particle interaction mechanism.     

Unsteady flow of a dusty fluid through a circular pipe with impulsive pressure gradient

Summary The unsteady flow of a dusty fluid through a circular pipe induced by a time dependent impulsive pressure gradient, has been studied. The governing equations have been solved using Laplace transform technique. Results have been discussed with the help of graphs. It is observed that the velocity of the fluid phase as well as that of the particle phase decreases with increase of either volume fraction or mass concentration of particle phase. The instantaneous rate of discharge of fluid as well as that of the particle phase decreases with increase of mass concentration of particles. They increase with time and attain a steady state for large time.     

The effect of oscillating flow on a horizontal dilute-phase pneumatic conveying

ABSTRACT

A horizontal dilute-phase pneumatic conveying system using vertically oscillating soft fins at the inlet of the gas–particle mixture was studied to reduce the power consumption and conveying velocity in the conveying process. The effect of different fin lengths on horizontal pneumatic conveying was studied in terms of the pressure drop, conveying velocity, power consumption, particle velocity, and intensity of particle fluctuation velocity for the case of a low solid mass flow rate. The conveying pipeline consisted of a horizontal smooth acrylic tube with an inner diameter of 80 mm and a length of approximately 5 m. Two types of polyethylene particles with diameters of 2.3 and 3.3 mm were used as conveying materials. The superficial air velocity was varied from 10 to 17 m/s, and the solid mass flow rates were 0.25 and 0.20 kg/s. Compared with conventional pneumatic conveying, the pressure drop, MPD (minimum pressure drop), critical velocities, and power consumption can be reduced by using soft fins in a lower air velocity range, and the efficiency of fins becomes more evident when increasing the length of fins or touching particles stream by the long fins. The maximum reduction rates of the MPD velocity and power consumption when using soft fins are approximately 15% and 26%, respectively. The magnitude of the vertical particle velocity for different lengths of fins is clearly lower than that of the vertical particle velocity for a non-fin conveying system near the bottom of the pipeline, indicating that the particles are easily suspended. The intensities of particle fluctuation velocity of using fins are larger than that of non-fin. The high particle fluctuation energy implies that particles are easily suspended and are easily conveyed and accelerated.     

ACOUSTIC FLOW INSTRUMENTS FOR SOLID/GAS FLOWS

Two nonintrusive acoustic flow sensing techniques are reported. One technique, passive in nature, simply measures the bandpassed acoustic noise level produced by particle/particle and particle/wall collisions. The noise levels, given in true root-mean-square voltages or in autocorrelations, show a linear relationship to particle velocity but increase with solid concentration. Therefore, the passive technique requires calibration and a separate measure of solid concentration before it can be used to monitor particle velocity. The second technique is based on the active cross-correlation principle. It measures particle velocity directly by correlating flow-related signatures at two sensing stations. The velocity data obtained by this technique are compared with measurements by a radioactive-particle time-of-flight (TOF) method. A multiplier of 1.53 is required to bring the acoustic data into agreement with the radioactive TOF result. The difference may originate from the difference in flow fields where particles are detected. The radioactive method senses particles mainly in the turbulent region and essentially measures average particle velocity across the pipe, while the acoustic technique detects particles near the pipe wall, and measures the particle velocity in the viscous sublayer. Both techniques were tested in flows of limestone and air and glass beads (1 mm) and air at the Argonne National Laboratory Solid/Gas Flow Test Facility. The test matrix covered solid velocities of 20 to 30 m/s in a 2-in. pipe and solid-to-gas loading ratios of 6 to 22.