Pipeline measuring solids concentration

Thin L-shaped probes are commonly used to measure solids concentration profile in slurry pipelines (28-33), However, serious sampling errors arise as a result of particle inertia. To illustrate the effect of particle inertia on the performance of L-shaped probes, consider the fiuid streamlines ahead (upstream) of a sampling probe located at the center of a pipe, as shown in Figure 2. The probe has zero thickness, and its axis coincides with that of the pipe. The fluid ahead of the sampler contains particles of different sizes and densities. Figure 2A shows the fluid streamlines for sampling with a velocity equal to the upstream local velocity (isokinetic sampling). Of course, the probe does not disturb the flow field ahead of the sampler, and consequently, sample solids concentration and composition equal those upstream of the probe. 

The next step was to test the probe performance in the pipeline in comparison with accepted methods for measuring solids concentrations isokinetic sampling and y-ray absorption methods. 

Velocity and concentration profiles are two important parameters often needed by the operator of slurry handling equipment. Several experimental techniques and mathematical models have been developed to predict these profiles. The aim of this chapter is to give the reader an overall picture of various experimental techniques and models used to measure and predict particle velocity and concentration distributions in slurry pipelines. I begin with a brief discussion of flow behavior in horizontal slurry pipelines, followed by a revision of the important correlations used to predict the critical deposit velocity. In the second part, I discuss various methods for measuring solids concentration in slurry pipelines. In the third part, I summarize methods for measuring bulk and local particle velocity. Finally, I review models for predicting solids concentration profiles in horizontal slurry pipelines. 

Wall Sampling from Vertical Slurry Pipelines. Moujaes (44) used wall sampling to measure solids concentration in upward vertical slurry flows. He found the sample concentration to be consistently lower than the true values in the pipe. Torrest and Savage (45) studied collection of particles in small branches. The sampling transport efficiency, E, defined as the ratio of the solids flow rate in the branch to that in the main pipe, was found to be a function of the single particle settling velocity (W0) and the upstream bulk velocity (Ub) as follows ... 

Conductivity methods have been successfully used to measure solid concentration in multiphase systems, where the conductivity of continuous phase is greater than zero, for example, sand-water slurries and oil-in-water emulsions (65). These methods have been used to measure bulk and local solids concentration in the slurry pipelines. Nasr-El-Din et al. (27) developed a four-electrode conductivity probe for measuring local solids concentration in slurry pipelines (Figure 20). The probe is... 

Capacitance Methods. Capacitance methods have been used to measure solids concentration in slurry pipelines (79). This method requires the dielectric constant of the solids and the carrying fluid to be significantly different. Sand-water slurry is a good example to use the capacitance method. In this case, the dielectric constant for water is 80, whereas that of the sand particles is 5. The method relies on the variation of the dielectric constant of the mixture, Em, with the solids concentration, C. For homogeneous slurries of spherical particles at low solids concentration, Maxwell s correlation can be used to predict the dielectric constant of the mixture. However, several investigators assumed that the relationship of the dielectric constant of the mixture and solids concentration was linear, as follows ... 

Gamma-ray methods have been used to measure solids concentration in slurry pipelines. Usually, the gamma-ray source and detector are mounted in the opposite sides of the pipe as shown in Figure 22. It should be mentioned that the gamma-ray absorption method in this case will measure solids concentration averaged over a chord in the pipe. It is worth noting that the chord-average concentration can be different from local solids concentration in some applications. Examples of such... 

Figure 22. Gamma-ray assembly for measuring solids concentration in slurry pipelines. (Reproduced with permission from reference 22. Copyright 1979.)...

In a recent study of the transport of coarse solids in a horizontal pipeline of 38 mrrt diameter, pressure drop, as a function not only of mixture velocity (determined by an electromagnetic flowmeter) but also of in-line concentration of solids and liquid velocity. The solids concentration was determined using a y-ray absorption technique, which depends on the difference in the attenuation of y-rays by solid and liquid. The liquid velocity was determined by a sail injection method,1"1 in which a pulse of salt solution was injected into the flowing mixture, and the time taken for the pulse to travel between two electrode pairs a fixed distance apart was measured, It was then possible, using equation 5.17, to calculate the relative velocity of the liquid to the solids. This relative velocity was found to increase with particle size and to be of the same order as the terminal falling velocity of the particles in the liquid. 

Based on the above mentioned, the programme of theoretical and experimental investigation of the main parameters of coal-methanol (or its water solution) mixture pipeline transport should be opened. As the first step of the programme the comparison of power consumption (dependency of hydraulic gradient I on slurry flow velocity V and solid concentration Cs) for the pipeline transport of coal-water mixture and coal-methanol solution mixture was realised. The special laboratory measurements were made to define unknown input data of semi-empirical relationships, i.e. the limit volumetric concentration Cm and the coefficient of mechanical friction of coal in the water or water-methanol solution ka. The resultant comparison of the hydraulic gradient I of the coal-water and coal-methanol solution mixture flow is presented in Figure 2, where density of coal was pc = 1480 kg/m3, diameter of the pipe was D = 0.103 mm, the maximal grain size of coal dmax was less than 0.25 mm, volumetric concentration - C = 20 %. 

The objectives of this chapter are (1) to give a brief review of various formulas to predict friction losses for flow of oil-in-water emulsions in smooth pipes, and (2) to discuss various methods that measure in situ solids concentration in pipelines. 

Another aspect of the transportation of heavy-oil-in-water emulsions, especially for short-distance pipelines, is the presence of sand particles. In situ solids concentration and emulsion quality can be measured with various sampling devices. However, serious errors in measuring both parameters arise from improper sampling. 

In dilute open-channel flows, solids concentration profile measurements showed es to be greater than e/ by an amount that varied with particle diameter (97). Pipeline flow measurements at low concentrations (25, 98) also showed differences of this type. 

Various techniques are available to measure velocity and solids concentration profiles in slurry pipeline. Sample withdrawal using an Li-shaped probe can give a representative sample at isokinetic conditions. Other sample devices will produce significant errors that must be corrected. Conductivity probes can be used to measure local velocity and concentration profiles simultaneously. However, the carrier fluid should be conductive. NMR imaging methods do not disturb the flow with a probe however, they are limited to pipes of small diameter. 

The smallest size pipeline loop usually considered for measurements intended for industrial scale-up is lin. (2.54 cm) inside diameter [178]. The results are used to determine laminar versus turbulent flow regimes and as input in flow models [178]. Nasr-El-Din [182,183] reviews the methods used to predict pressure drops across emulsions flowing in pipelines, as well as those used to sample and measure oil and solid concentrations in pipelines. An example of an equation for the prediction of water-in-crude oil (North Sea crude oil) emulsion viscosity is given in Equation (6.48). 

For salt aqueous solutions in the absence of any other chemical additives, the hydrate suppression temperature (i.e., dissociation temperature shift) can be determined by measuring the electrical conductivity (Mohammadi, et al, 2007) [16], To characterize liquid mixtures for industrial processes, an acoustic multi-sensor system was developed to measure the concentrations of the chemicals such as MeOH and MEG in the solutions without salts (Henning, et al, 2000) [10]. However, these methods may not be applicable to most hydrocarbon transport pipelines where salts and at least one inhibitor often coexist in the aqueous phase. (Sandengen and Kaasa, 2006) [18] developed an empirical correlation that determined the MEG and NaCl concentrations by measuring the density and electrical conductivity of water samples under examination. However, the critical weakness of this method is that it requires high accuracy of the density measurement, which prevents it from application to real produced water samples that usually contain solid particles (sands and clays) and oil droplets. 

Laboratory experiments were carried out on settling mixtures of different sand particle sizes and a wide range of solids concentrations (up to a mean concentration of 45% by volume). The experiments included the measurement of the concentration profiles across the mixture stream in a laboratory pipeline. For the detection of mechanisms governing the flow of mixture in a pipeline, observations of concentration profiles are essential. The paper analyses concentration profiles in pipeline flows of highly concentrated sand-water mixtures and studies the effect of solids distribution on friction in pipeline flows of highly concentrated sand mixtures. 

The applications of isokinetic sampling cover but are not limited to the sampling of aerosols such as flu gas in chimney, soots (unbumed carbons) from diesel engine exhaust, dusts suspended in the atmosphere, and fumes from various sprayers measurements of particulate mass fluxes in pneumatic transport pipelines and other particulate pipe flows solid fuel (also some liquid fuels) distributions in furnaces, engines, and other types of combustors and calibrations of instruments for the measurements of particle mass concentrations. Isokinetic sampling can also be applied to flows with liquid droplets. In this case, the droplet sample is usually collected by an immiscible liquid (Koo et al., 1992 Zhang and Ishii, 1995). 

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