Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Fluid-Solid Mixture Flow by Pneumatic System in Textile Industry

Abstract

The transport of multiphase flows of slurry (fluid-solid) through pipelines is usually encountered through several hurdles in various industries such as cement, textile and chemical industries. The flow parameters such as solids concentration, pipe directions and so on, add to these complexities and concepts associated with transport of slurries seems to be uncertain which has resulted in significant research being conducted on flow of slurries through pipelines. The investigation has been carried out in Textile and garment factory at Ethiopia in eastern Africa. The objective of the investigation is to study the effects of transporting of fluid-solid mixture (air-cotton ball) through horizontal, vertical and inclined pipelines in a textile factory. For this purpose one generalized mathematical model developed by Shrivastava and Kar (SK Model) was applied to predict more accurate results of pressure drop. The results of pressure drop obtained using SK model were compared with experimental results. The results showed that the percentage of head losses is increased in the smaller diameter pipe line about 48% and 67% with air velocity 12 m/s and 24 m/s respectively as compared to that of larger diameter pipeline. In the proposed pipeline system, it was observed that the energy saving can be achieved about 65% and 77% with air velocity 12 m/s and 24 m/s respectively.