The Use of Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) to Monitor Flow Patterns in Horizontal Slurry Transport Pipelines

A D Pachowko1, M Wang1, C Poole1 and D Rhodes2

1. Institute of Particle Science and Engineering, Leeds University, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK, preadp@leeds.ac.uk

   2British Nuclear Fuels plc, Seascale, CA20 1PG, UK

   
   

   ABSTRACT

   
   

   Slurry transportation of solids has been of interest to many researchers for a number of years in various countries, yet still little is known about the physical sedimentation processes that are actually occurring in the pipe in question at a particular time. Electrical resistance tomography will be used to demonstrate and quantify the conditions that are required to generate non-stratified (pseudohomogeneous), partial stratified (heterogeneous) and fully stratified (moving and stationary bed) flow patterns, and their dependency on the delivered solids concentration and mean slurry mixture velocity.

   
   

   The technique of tomography can, therefore, be used to observe under what conditions a bed deposit starts to form (when the critical velocity of particle deposition is reached), when the particles in the moving bed suddenly become stationary at the pipes’ invert (when the limit deposition velocity is reached) and the velocity where the concentration profile appears to be independent of radial position and axial velocities. These transitional velocities can be compared to the actual measured velocities observed during the experiment, as a means of determining the reliability of the measurements. A brief description of how the technique of electrical resistance tomography can be used to improve modelling will be discussed.

   
   

   Keywords Electrical Resistance Tomography, Slurry Transport, Flow Patterns