Application Insight: Hydraulic Transportation
29/10/2009
One of the interesting aspects of process tomography is how the same unit process can be found across a range of industries. Two of the most common are mixing and transport of slurries.
Hydraulic transport
The flow of slurries is a common unit process in:
- Mining and mineral processing
- Food manufacture, such as stews, pet food, yoghurts
- Dredging
- Nuclear waste management
In the majority of these areas, a key objective is to ensure that the energy used goes into pumping the solid phase at the highest concentrations, whilst avoiding the level of solids rising to the extent that it blocks the pipe.
Resistance tomography has been used in all of the above areas to determine how solids are distributed in a pipe – are they carried in the flow or settling at the bottom? In addition, an on-line measure of solids concentration is also extremely valuable.
Recent work at the University of Leeds into cross-correlation of tomography data has also provided a tool for measuring the flow vectors of materials as they flow through pipes. For example in an inclined pipe, it is possible to estimate the degree of slippage of the heavier phase.
A number of examples are shown below and a recent case study published by ITS is available to download through our website –
http://www.itoms.com/case_studies/hydrotransport_hydraulic_conveying_of_slurries_slurry_handling
Use of tomography during dredging for land reclamation in the Middle East:
Determination of effectiveness of a flow modifier being tested for nuclear industry:
Validation of tomography against optical and x-ray measurements:
Visualisation of flow vectors of a slurry:
Print page
Bookmark page
