Numerical Investigation of the Pressure Drop Characteristics of Isothermal Ice Slurry Flow under Variable Ice Particle Diameter

Abstract

Ice slurry is an advanced secondary refrigerant that has been attracting considerable attention for the past decade due to the growing concerns regarding energy shortage and environmental protection. To stimulate the potential applications of ice slurry, the corresponding pressure drop of this refrigerant must be comprehensively investigated. The flow of ice slurry is a complex phenomenon that is affected by various parameters, including flow velocity, ice particle size, and ice mass fraction. To predict the pressure drop of ice slurry flow in pipes, a mixture computational fluid dynamic model was adopted to simulate a two-phase flow without considering ice melting. The numerical calculations were performed on a wide range of six ice particle sizes (0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.75, 1, and 1.2 mm) and ice mass fraction ranging within 5%–20% in the laminar range of ice slurry flow. The numerical model was validated using experimental data. Results showed that the ice volumetric loading and flow velocity have a direct effect on pressure drop; it increases with the increase in volumetric concentration and flow velocity. The findings also confirmed that for constant ice mass fraction and flow velocity, the pressure drop is directly and inversely related to the particle and pipe diameters, respectively. Moreover, the rise in pressure drop is more significant for large ice particle diameter in comparison to smaller size ice particles at high values of ice concentration and flow velocity.

Numerical Investigation of Slurry Pressure Drop at Different Pipe Roughness in a Straight Pipe Using CFD

“…Denser fluid showcases higher frictional and rubbing effect [42]. Further, the rise in temperature of granular materials results due to increase in mean flow velocity of the particle and solid concentration, which enhance the turbulence due to particle inter collusions and particle wall collision and thereby led to increase in temperature through the pipe domain.…”

“…This can be attributed to the fact that the large particle increases the mass fraction, which alters density of mixture. This in turn leads to the accumulation of particles in the wall, and ultimately causes higher resistance (frictional) and rubbing forces in the flow[42]. However, at low concentration, i.e., C w 40%, the pressure distribution is lower (can be…”

Review of Ice Slurry Pigging Techniques for the Water Supply Industry: Engineering Design and Application

“…85 Considering an ice slurry as a two-phase flow based on multiphase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods, numerical simulations offer the advantages of better capturing the heterogeneous flow features (e.g., pressure drop, distribution of ice particles, secondary flow, and near-wall boundary layers). 64 In addition, studies investigated ice slurry pressure drop characteristics under different operating conditions, which include variable ice particle diameter, 87 ice slurry concentration, and velocity. 88 Moreover, a CFD-PBM coupled model is employed to reveal the influence of ice particle kinetics on ice particle size distribution (PSD) in horizontal 90°elbow pipe.…”