Experimental investigation on the spiral pipe performance for particle-laden liquids

Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids are commonly transported with the piping system, but non-Newtonian fluids with particle-laden are more complicated to be transported due to various factors. A deposition is one of the problems that must be investigated due to affecting flow efficiency. The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of 3-lobes spiral pipe in relationship with particles effect. The working fluid used had several variations of concentration weight (i.e. Cw 20%, 30% and 40%). Test pipes used had 1550 mm of length which consisted of a spiral pipe with P/Di=7 and a circular pipe with an inner diameter of 25.4 mm; both of the pipes were used to investigate the particles effect where the circular pipe for examining rheological of the working fluid. Slurry particles sized 1–5 μm in this study was obtained from the mud eruption at Semau Island, Kupang-Indonesia. By comparing both working fluids, the critical velocity observed in the spiral pipe was not as high as observed in the circular pipe, and thus the spiral pipe is more efficient to be used in slurry transportation from mud eruption area.