Influence of Rheology on the flow characteristics of bauxite slurries during hydraulic conveying through the pipeline

Abstract

The primary focus of the present study is to demonstrate the role of particle concentration and size distribution on bauxite slurry rheology and slurry transportation. It was previously established that in such systems at shear rates in the range of 10-500 s-1, the slurry is free from wall slip and Taylor vortices. Hence, all our experiments were carried out in this shear rate range. Our rheological data reveals the shear thinning flow behaviour of bauxite slurries irrespective of particle concentration and particle size. The slurry with fine particles enhances the viscosity, which is reduced by incorporating an optimum concentration of coarse particles. The flow coefficients obtained using a Power-law model on the rheological curves are used to calculate head losses, energy consumption, and energy cost for slurry transportation through the pipeline. Results suggest that a large quantity of solids containing heavier and coarser particles can be transported economically with low energy consumption.