Analysis of minimum specific energy consumption and optimal transport concentration of slurry pipeline transport systems

Slurry pipeline transport is widely used in several industrial processes.Calculating the specific power consumption(SPC)and determining the best working conditions are important for the design and operation of transportation systems.Based on the Shanghai Jiao Tong University high-concentration multi-sized slurry pressure drop(SJTU-HMSPD)pipeline-resistance-calculation model,the SJTU-SPC model for calculating the power required to transport a unit volume of solid materials over a unit pipeline length is established for a slurry transport system.The said system demonstrates a uniformity coefficient in the 1.26–7.98 range,median particle size of 0.075–4 mm,particle volume concentration of 10–60%,and pipeline diameter of 0.203–0.8 m.The results obtained were successfully verified against existing experimental data.The influence of parameters,such as particle-gradation uniformity coefficient,median particle size,pipe diameter,and particle volume concentration,on the SPC were analysed.The results revealed that the greater is the uniformity coefficient,the smaller is the minimum specific energy consumption and the larger the optimal transport concentration for a constant,median particle size slurry.As observed,the optimal transport concentration for broad-graded sand equalled approximately 48%.These results supplement the conclusions of existing research,indicating that the optimal transport concentration is approximately 30%and provides theoretical support for high concentration transportation of broad graded slurry.

Specific Energy Consumption Analysis Model and Its Application in Typical Steel Manufacturing Process

Theoretical minimum and actual specific energy consumptions （SEC） of typical manufacturing process （SMP） were studied. Firstly, a process division of a typical SMP in question was conducted with the theory of SEC analysis. Secondly, an exergy analysis model of a subsystem consisting of several parallel processes and a SEC analysis model of SMP were developed. And finally, based on the analysis models, the SEC of SMP was analyzed by means of the statistical significance. The results show that the SEC of typical SMP comprises the theoretical minimum SEC and the additional SEC derived from the irreversibility~ and the SMP has a theoretical minimum SEC of 6.74 GJ/t and an additional SEC of 19.32 GJ/t, which account for 25.88% and 74.12% of the actual SEC, respectively.