Effect of construction technology on air-lifting pump mining

Abstract

The air-lifting pump has the advantages of low cost, strong reliability, simple structure and convenient maintenance, especially in the fields of deep-sea mining, oilfield mining and mineral mining under complex geological conditions. The construction technology and air intake mode not only play a decisive role in the performance of the air-lifting pump, but also greatly hinder the engineering application of the air-lifting pump. Here, the air-lifting pump is taken as the research object, and the river sand is used as the experimental transport medium. The particle concentration-efficiency model is established based on the mechanical energy conservation theorem. The working performance characteristic parameters of the air-lifting pump under different construction technologies are obtained by a three-axis motion control system. On this basis, the working performance characteristic parameters of the air-lifting pump under different intake modes are obtained by changing the intake mode. The results show that the particle concentration-efficiency model can well describe the efficiency of lifting solid particles by the air-lifting pump. When the sand depth is less than 200 mm, the concentration and efficiency of solid particles transported by the air-lifting pump in the horizontal movement construction are significantly better than those in the fixed position construction. In the same construction technology, the solid particle concentration of the air-lifting pump in uniform intake mode is better than that in non-uniform intake mode, while the transportation efficiency of the air-lifting pump in non-uniform intake mode is better than that in uniform intake mode. The research results of this paper can provide an important theoretical reference value for the air-lifting pump in practical engineering applications.

Gas state equation and flow mechanism of gas–liquid two-phase flow in airlift pump system

“…Since their original development by Loscher 1 as a lightweight lifting device, ALPs have been employed to transport fluids and slurries in the field of aquaculture, 2 nuclear fuel reprocessing, 3 sediment removal, 4,5 special chemical fluids, 6 airlift reactors, 7,8 carbon fuel cell systems, 9 nutrient-rich deep-sea water, 10 and deep-sea mining. [11][12][13] To date, researchers have accumulated significant theoretical and experimental research on ALPs, mostly relating to the effects of operating parameters and geometric parameters on the capability and efficiency of the system. Kassab et al 4,5 performed a series of experiments at nine submergence ratios on three lifting tubes of different lengths.…”