A Model Calculation for Flow Resistance in the Hydraulic Transport of Sand
Type:
Presented during:
WODCON XVIII - 2007 Orlando, Florida, USA
Authors:
Fusheng
Abstract: The hydraulic transport of sand is an important process in dredging engineering. An accurate calculation of the flow resistance of sand when hydraulically transported is a significant part of any reasonable design for a pump-pipeline transport system. Although there have been a number of empirical formulae proposed by Durand, Condolios, Jufin, Wilson, GIW, etc., the flow resistance calculation still needs to be subjected to further investigation. A model that is widely used in coal hydraulic transport, called the Wasp model is introduced in this paper. The model classifies particles as homogeneously distributed particles and heterogeneously distributed bed particles. Water and the suspended particles form the so called “two-phase carrying fluid” or “vehicle” and transport the heterogeneous bed particles. This paper tries to apply a model, proposed by Wasp and used in coal slurry, to the resistance calculation for the hydraulic transport of sand. The model is checked by our measured data from the laboratory stand of sand transport at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. Results show that the model can result in a reasonable prediction for the resistance of small particles slurry. However, like the other popular models, it could not give a satisfactory prediction for coarse sand transport either. The accuracy given by the Wasp model actually depends on the modeling of the homogeneous slurry and the modeling of the heterogeneous slurry.
Keywords: Sand hydraulic transport, flow resistance, Wasp model.