Investigation of Pressure Distribution in Pipeline for Transportation of Coal Ash Slurry

Abstract

Slurry transportation system has been used in thermal power plants for the transporation of bottom ash. This system has proved its efficient working and advantages such as less noisy, no air pollution. But still now optimization is required for better performance. In the present work rheological properties of various bottom and fly ash mixtures are studied to evaluate the factors affecting the flow behaviour of slurry. Bottom and fly ash for the present investigation was collected from the Guru Gobind Singh thermal power plant, Ropar. Particle size distribution, pH , settling characteristics of bottom and fly ash are investigated. Rheometer is used for the shear rate and shear stress variation for the different ratios of bottom and fly ash. Numerical simulation is performed on the slurry flow through straight pipe and 900 horizontal bend for the evaluation of pressure drop per unit length. Modeling of Straight pipe and 900 horizontal bend is performed in Gambit version 2.2, Fluent version 6.2 is used for the numerical evaluation. Simulation has been performed on various concentrations(20%,30%,40% & 50%) of bottom and fly ash mixtures varying flow velocity from 1.5m/s to 3m/s. It is found that pressure drop increases with increasing flow velocity and higher concentrations( by weight) of bottom and fly ash mixtures.