Yield stress slurries

Oxide prepared in this way has an average particle size of 1 to 3 microns and has handled well in high-temperature engineering loop tests at slurry concentrations as high as 1500 g Th/kg H2O. Removal of the oversize particles has decreased the erosive attack on loop components to essentially what would be observed with water alone (see Section 6-7). At 1500 g Th/kg H2O, slurries of average particle sizes 1 micron have moderately high yield stresses (0.5 to 1 Ib/ft ). Lower-yield-stress slurries are obtained with the larger particles. 

You must determine the horsepower required to pump a coal slurry through an 18 in. diameter pipeline, 300 mi long, at a rate of 5 million tons/yr. The slurry can be described by the Bingham plastic model, with a yield stress of 75 dyn/cm2, a limiting viscosity of 40 cP, and a density of 1.4 g/cm3. For non-Newtonian fluids, the flow is not sensitive to the wall roughness. 

A pipeline has been proposed to transport a coal slurry 1200 mi from Wyoming to Texas, at a rate of 50 million tons/yr, through a 36 in. diameter pipeline. The coal slurry has the properties of a Bingham plastic, with a yield stress of 150dyn/cm2, a limiting viscosity of 40 cP, and an SG of 1.5. You must conduct a lab experiment in which the measured pressure gradient can be used to determine the total pressure drop in the pipeline. 

The Bingham plastic model usually provides a good representation for the viscosity of concentrated slurries, suspensions, emulsions, foams, etc. Such materials often exhibit a yield stress that must be exceeded before the material will flow at a significant rate. Other examples include paint, shaving cream, and mayonnaise. There are also many fluids, such as blood, that may have a yield stress that is not as pronounced. 

A pipeline is installed to transport a red mud slurry from an open tank in an alumina plant to a disposal pond. The line is 5 in. sch 80 commercial steel, 12,000 ft long, and is designed to transport the slurry at a rate of 300 gpm. The slurry properties can be described by the Bingham plastic model, with a yield stress of 15 dyn/cm2, a limiting viscosity of 20 cP, and an SG of 1.3. You may neglect any fittings in this pipeline. 

A mud slurry is drained from a tank through a 50 ft long plastic hose. The hose has an elliptical cross section with a major axis of 4 in. and a minor axis of 2 in. The open end of the hose is 10 ft below the level in the tank. The mud is a Bingham plastic, with a yield stress of 100 dyn/cm2, a limiting viscosity of 50 cP, and a density of 1.4g/cm3. 

Example 15-1 Determine the pressure gradient (in psi/ft) required to transport a slurry at 300 gpm through a 4 in. sch 40 pipeline. The slurry contains 50% (by weight) solids (SG = 2.5) in water. The slurry contains a bimodal particle size distribution, with half the particles below 100 pm and the other half about 2000 gm. The suspension of fines is stable and constitutes a pseudohomogeneous non-Newtonian vehicle in which the larger particles are suspended. The vehicle can be described as a Bingham plastic with a limiting viscosity of 30 cP and a yield stress of 55 dyn/cm2. 

In wet grinding the power consumption is generally about 30 per cent lower than that for dry grinding and, additionally, the continuous removal of product as it is formed is facilitated. The rheological properties of the slurry are important and the performance tends to improve as the apparent viscosity increases, reaching an optimum at about 0.2 Pa.s. At very high volumetric concentrations (ca. 50 volume per cent), the fluid may exhibit shear-thickening behaviour or have a yield stress, and the behaviour may then be adversely affected. 

Slurry Viscosities. In addition to the yield stress, the characteristic shear stress-shear rate relation of the fuel slurry should be known since the shape of the shear rate-shear stress curve (consistency curve) is an indication of the gel characteristics. Low shear rate data (102 sec."1) are useful mainly in determining batch-to-batch reproducibility, while high shear rate data (104 to 106 sec."1) are required to assess the flow characteristics in engine hardware. 

The Bingham Fluid. The Bingham fluid is an empirical model that represents the rheological behavior of materials that exhibit a no flow region below certain yield stresses, tv, such as polymer emulsions and slurries. Since the material flows like a Newtonian liquid above the yield stress, the Bingham model can be represented by... 

Flow and self-leveling characteristics of these products are governed by the rheological behavior of the slurry-like materials. At the low water-cement ratios required to ensure proper suspension of the solids, most self-leveling compositions are characterized by a yield stress and thixotropic behavior [75], To obtain selfleveling properties, the yield stress has to be reduced and this is achieved by the... 

Experimental rheologic data were fit to the power law, Herschel-Bulkley, and Casson models. The power law model does not predict yield stress. Yield stress for 21% grain slurries predicted by the Herschel-Bulkley model was a negative value, as shown in Table 6. Yield stress values predicted by the Herschel Bulkley model for 23 and 25% solids were 8.31 and 56.3 dyn/cm2, respectively. Predicted yield stress values from the Casson model were 9.47 dyn/cm2 for 21% solids, 28.5 dyn/cm2 for 23% solids, and 44.0 dyn/cm2 for 25% solids. 

Because MgO has high solubility even at room temperature, Ceramicrete compositions are suitable for permafrost and shallow wells only. Boric acid is used to retard the reaction in these formulations. The amount of water used in these formulations is also higher than normally needed for the acid-base reaction. This excess water and a minimum amount of boric acid (0.125 wt% of the powder blend) are needed to reduce the initial Be (or reduce the yield stress and the initial viscosity) of the slurry. 

Figure 15.3 shows a typical time versus consistency graph for a permafrost-sealant test composition. The low initial Be ensures a low yield stress and pumping viscosity. The increase in Be is gradual, indicating slow dissolution of MgO and wollastonite in the solution. As the Be increases, its rise to 70 is rapid, and the time versus Be curve is almost vertical. Such behavior ensures that the slurry, once placed, will set rapidly. 

Slurries that exhibit a yield stress will resist settling when stationary, which is a low shear condition, but... 

Fig. 1 Classes of rheological behavior that can be shown by coal slurries, as they appear when plotted on a shear rate/ shear stress graph. It is desirable for coal slurries to be Bingham plastic or pseudoplastic with yield, as such slurries flow readily at high shear rates (such as during pumping or atomization), while remaining stable against settling at low shear rates because of their yield stress. Dilatant slurries are completely unsuitable for coal slurry applications because they are extremely difficult to pump.

Many industrial processes are affected by the influence of particulate materials on the flow properties of material. Flow properties of materials can be adjusted by fillers to meet the requirements. Flow properties can also be adversely affected by numerous phenomena related to the presence of filler in formulations.One common example is related to the flow of industrial slurries which contain concentrated suspensions of small particles. Such suspensions are usually non-Newtonian fluids with a yield stress which is formed through strong interactions between particles. During flow, these interactions are continuously broken and rebuilt. A solid deposit formed on the slopes and walls is an adverse effect of this property. 

Yanez, J.A. etal.. Shear modulus and yield stress measurements of attractive alumina particle networks in aqueous slurries, 7. Am. Ceram. Soc., 19, 2917, 1996. 

The Bingham plastic model usually provides a good representation for the viscosity of concentrated slurries, suspensions, sediments, emulsions, foams, etc. Such materials often exhibit a yield stress,... 

Solids concentrations can vary from a few percent to well over 50% in a typical stirred tank. Solids concentration, particle shape, and the viscosity of the suspending phase are the main factors affecting the rheology and settling characteristics of the slurry. Cubic- and spherical-shaped solids tend to form Newtonian slurries, while needle-, oblong-, and plate-shaped solids form thixotropic slurries. Such slurries exhibit yield stresses even at quite low solids concentrations. This can lead to the development of caverns, as shown in Section 9.4. Proper design can usually overcome these stagnation problems. 

The second set of constraints is related to the displacement of the drilling mud from the annulus. This is a fairly difficult technical issue, that is, the displacement of a non-Newtonian fluid by a series of non-Newtonian fluids—most of them exhibiting a yield stress—in an eccentric annulus (the casing is rarely perfectly centered in the hole). At each interface, drilling mud-spacer and spacer-cement slurry, the process is governed by buoyancy forces and viscous forces. 

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