Effect of Added Fines on Relative Pressure Drop for Narrow-Sized Silica Sand Slurry Flow

In the present paper, the experimental pressure drop data measured for narrow sized silica sand slurry and bi-modal slurry which consists of narrow sized silica sand and fly ash as fine particles in different proportions, keeping the overall efflux concentration constant is used to generate the relative pressure drop characteristics to quantify the change in pressure drop characteristics. The pressure drop measurements are done using a pilot plant test loop over a straight length of 4.0 m in 50 mm NB diameter pipe line under fully developed flow condition. The flow velocities covered are in the range of 1.75 m/s to 4.0 m/s. The lowest velocity chosen is well above the deposition velocity. The pressure drop data collected for narrow-sized silica sand slurry and bi-modal slurry is at average efflux concentrations of 9.8, 20.4 and 33.9% (by weight). Based on relative pressure drop for bi-model slurry, study concludes that increasing the percentage of fine particles mixed in a narrow-sized slurry reduces the pressure drop significantly in the heterogeneous regime of slurry flows which are usually the operating range in prototype slurry pipelines.