Innovative Ducts For Particle Laden Liquids At Low Velocities

Innovative Ducts For Particle Laden Liquids At Low Velocities

Cylindrical pipes are the natural choice for transporting liquids. The shape offers no hindrance to the liquid and the friction factor is small. However, when particles are present in the liquid, the advantage becomes a disadvantage. Particles can slide to the lowest part of the duct, build up and eventually block the pipe. The suspension of the particles can be maintained by pumping the liquid at high velocity, but this increases the power consumed by the pump and attrition wear as the high-speed particles strike the walls of the duct.

Helically-formed swirl-inducing ducts are an elegant solution to these challenges. They suspend entrained particles at low pumping power.

Learn More About Swirl Inducing Pipes

See Ariyaratne,C., Jones,T.F. (2007), Design and Optimisation of Swirl Pipe Geometry for Particle-Laden Liquids, AIChE Journal, April 2007, Vol 53, No 4.