Pipe-Wall Friction in Vertical Sand-Slurry Flows

This article describes the results of extensive laboratory tests of vertical flows of three sand fractions (0.12, 0.37, and 1.84 mm sands) in a 150 mm pipe. The tests revealed an interesting phenomenon of a surprisingly low contribution of the medium sand to the total friction of the mixture flow in the vertical pipe. The frictional pressure drop in highly concentrated flows at high velocities was lower for slurries of the medium sand than for slurries of both the fine sand and the coarse sand. The solids friction at the pipe wall is analyzed taking into account effects of particle-particle interactions and particle-liquid interactions in the boundary layer of a vertical flow of settling slurry. The analysis suggests that the observed phenomenon is associated with the hydrodynamic liquid lift force acting on solid particles traveling near a pipe wall. This off-wall force seems to be more effective for the medium sand particles than for the fine sand particles and coarse sand particles interacting with liquid in the boundary layer of the mixture flow. The excessive frictional pressure drop due to the presence of solids in vertical flows seems to be primarily produced by the combined effect of the Bagnold collisional force (the force that colliding particles exert against the pipe wall) and the liquid lift force acting on solid particles in the near-wall zone of the slurry flow.