Experimental analysis of particle clustering in moderately dense gas–solid flow

In collisional gas–solid flows, dense particle clusters are often observed that greatly affect the transport properties of the mixture. The characterisation and prediction of this phenomenon are challenging due to limited optical access, the wide range of scales involved and the interplay of different mechanisms. Here, we consider a laboratory setup in which particles fall against upward-moving air in a square vertical duct: a classic configuration in riser reactors. The use of non-cohesive, monodispersed, spherical particles and the ability to independently vary the solid volume fraction ( $\varPhi _V = 0.1\,\% - 0.8\,\%$ ) and the bulk airflow Reynolds number ( $Re_{bulk} = 300 - 1200$ ) allows us to isolate key elements of the multiphase dynamics, providing the first laboratory observation of cluster-induced turbulence. Above a threshold $\varPhi _V$ , the system exhibits intense fluctuations of concentration and velocity, as measured by high-speed imaging via a backlighting technique which returns optically depth-averaged fields. The space–time autocorrelations reveal dense and persistent mesoscale structures falling faster than the surrounding particles and trailing long wakes. These are shown to be the statistical footprints of visually observed clusters, mostly found in the vicinity of the walls. They are identified via a percolation analysis, tracked in time, and characterised in terms of size, shape, location and velocity. Larger clusters are denser, longer-lived and have greater descent velocity. At the present particle Stokes number, the threshold $\varPhi _V \sim 0.5$ % (largely independent from $Re_{bulk}$ ) is consistent with the view that clusters appear when the typical interval between successive collisions is shorter than the particle response time.

On particle separation from turbulent particle plumes in a cross-flow

We present new experiments of particle-driven turbulent plumes issuing from a constant source of dense particle-laden fluid, with buoyancy flux, $B$ , in a uniform horizontal current, $u$ . Experiments show that a turbulent, well-mixed plume develops, in which the downward vertical speed $w$ decreases with depth $z$ according to $w = 0.76 (B/uz)^{1/2}$ while the horizontal speed rapidly asymptotes to the current speed $u$ , provided that the Stokes settling speed of the particles $v<0.92 w$ . For $v > 0.92 w$ , the particles separate from the plume fluid, and their depth $z$ increases according to the simple sedimentation trajectory $\textrm {d}z/{\textrm {d}\kern0.7pt x} = v/u$ . As the particles sediment, they form clusters of particles, which lead to fluctuations in the particle load with position, but do not appear to change the time-average sedimentation speed. We explore the impact of these results for deep-sea mining, in which the fate of the plume water as well as the particles is key for assessing potential environmental impacts.

Study on the erosion wear in pipe fittings

In the pipeline system for slurry, local erosion wear failure has become the main damage mechanism of pipe in the fracturing operations of oil-gas engineering. Computational Fluid Dynamics simulation is performed to determine the evolutionary process of erosion wear in tubing connector, which is the resistance of pipeline system, and a new way to predict the pipeline longevity is provided. Based on the Euler equation, solid particle concentration in the slurry and interphase momentum exchange are included in the liquid flow equations due to the influence of dense particle on slurry (slurry is a two-phase flow), and the particle trajectory were calculated in the Lagrange frame by analyzing the forces from the interaction of liquid and particle and particles impact. With the erosion damage model, the erosion rate/depth in the connector was calculated to reconstruct the mesh model of shoulder with 5 tori. Torus 1 is closest to axis while torus 5 is on the outmost wall of the connector. During the erosion event, greatest erosion and hence surface deformation occurs on tori 1 and 2, and this affects the surrounding flow and particle movement. After 10 hours of erosion, there was a dramatic drop in the maximum erosion rate, which illustrated a conservative prediction for pipeline service life if the initial erosion rate was used. An erosion experimental setup was also performed to identify the weight loss and erosion characteristic of the inner surface with erosion time of 55 hours. It was observed that the erosion simulations provided relative errors within 18% for erosion length and weight loss compared to the experimental values and a closed form equation for the erosion rate was proposed to predict the erosion life of tubing connector

Fractal Properties of a Falling Particle Curtain in Air

The formation of a gravity-driven falling particle curtain is important for many problems, including solar tower particle receivers and setting the correct initial conditions for modeling shock interaction with multiphase media. One important characteristic of the curtain is the time history of its fractal dimension that characterizes the evolutionary growth of perturbations along the curtain's extent. For multiphase flows, fractal dimension can be used to help predict the types of instabilities that will occur within the flow. Our experiment aimed to establish the transient and steady-state fractal dimension of a dense particle curtain containing particles with a density of 1.4416 gm/cm3 and nominal diameter ranging from 30 to 50 microns. High-speed video of the curtain was captured and analyzed. This data from this experiment, besides providing insights into the relevant physical processes, will be used to validate numerical models for multiphase flows.

Modernization of Mining Scheme in Developing Peat Deposit

The article presents the results of the study of a peat deposit development scheme with improved spread parameters. The parameters are improved by forming the spread as moulded particles of a certain shape and size determined by the size of moulding machine grooves and the degree of peat relaxation. To obtain such particles a milling cutter is proposed to be replaced by a moulding mill at the stage of peat deposit milling. When excavated, the peat mass is loosened and fed into a roller moulding machine where the rollers, rotating in opposite directions, capture it and the peat is compressed. The loose structure changes into dense particle-particle packing. The circumferential speeds of roller rotations are equal. A trapezoidal groove profile is chosen for the moulded particles to leave it. The groove depth is 10 mm. The uniformity of the moulded enlarged particle distribution over a drying field is characterized by a spread variation coefficient, which allows the spread quality to be evaluated. The enlarged particle spread is normalized by some cumulative actions characterizing the spread by parameters (the thickness, the average particle size, the size uniformity, the number of layers). Therefore, the drying of enlarged particles is intensified and peat yield per unit area is increased.