HERRAMIENTA DE AYUDA AL DISEÑO EN TUBERÍAS DE TRANSPORTE DE SÓLIDOS.

Abstract

During the last years a huge development in the transport of solid materials by means of pipelines has occurred. The use of this type of transport has make it easy the continuous transport of material by long length pipes, with completely acceptable costs and moderate environmental impact. In this technology the solid material is fluidified requiring big volumes of liquid. In order to decrease the liquid volume very high concentration levels of solids in the fluids have been achieved through thickening (flocculation). Unfortunately, these thick fluids present non Newtonian properties, which greatly complicates the calculations involved. The work here presented provides a tool to help in the design of pipelines for solids transport, incorporating all the necessary calculations to get a full dimensioning of the system, without requiring from the user a great knowledge of advanced fluid-dynamics. The tool performs the dimensioning of the pipes and pumps according to their characteristics, as well as the selection of materials. For each case the pressure drops in piping are obtained as well as the transport speed. Moreover, parameters of system maintenance due to wear and corrosion, and methods to minimize it are taken into account.