Session: 05-03-01 Deepsea Mining and Ocean Resources

Paper Number: 100939

100939 - Study on Large Particle Slurry Transport in Inclined Pipes With Pulsating Flow for Subsea Mining 

For the design and operation of a subsea mining system, it is important to predict pressure loss due to the hydraulic transport of solid particles in the lifting pipe system.

The lifting pipe system has not only a vertical rigid pipe but also a flexible pipe to connect the mining tool and the lifting pump. The configuration of flexible pipe shall have an inclined part.

In the actual mining system, the slurry flow in the pipe system is expected to be unsteady.

 

To our knowledge, there are no efforts to investigate the effects of pipe inclination on the pressure loss in the pulsating slurry flow for safe and reliable ore lifting.

 

Some of the authors have developed a mathematical model to predict the pressure loss of the internal steady slurry flow for various pipe inclinations and another model to predict the pressure loss of the internal pulsating slurry flow only for the vertical pipe.

 

In the present paper, we investigated the effects of pipe inclination on the pressure loss for the pulsating slurry flow.

We modified the mathematical models developed in the previous studies to predict the internal pulsating slurry flow for various pipe inclinations.

Then we carried out the slurry transport experiment to obtain the data for the investigation of the effects of flow fluctuation on pressure loss in an inclined pipe. In the experiment, alumina beads were used as solid particles. The experimental parameters were slurry velocity, solid concentration, pulsating period, pulsating amplitude and pipe inclination angle.

The calculated pressure loss using the modified model was compared with the experimental data. As the comparison results, it was confirmed that the modified model could be applied to predict the pressure loss in an inclined pipe.

Presenting Author: Sotaro Masanobu National Maritime Research Institute, Japan

Presenting Author Biography: 2003: Researcher, Ocean Engineering Department, National Maritime Research Institute, Japan
2008: Chief Researcher, Ocean Engineering Department, National Maritime Research Institute, Japan
2009: Head, Ocean Resources Development Research Group, Ocean Engineering Department, National Maritime Research Institute, Japan
2011: Head, Deep Sea Technology Research Group, Ocean Engineering Department, National Maritime Research Institute, Japan
2017: Director, Ocean Engineering Department, National Maritime Research Institute, Japan

Authors:

Sotaro Masanobu National Maritime Research Institute, Japan
Satoru Takano National Maritime Research Institute, Japan
Marcio Yamamoto National Maritime Research Institute, Japan
Yuichi Murai Hokkaido University
Yuji Tasaka Hokkaido University
Hyun Jin Park Hokkaido University