LDA Study of Particulate Flow in a Channel with Deformed Surface Locations and with Flow Conditioner

Mehdi Azimian, Hans-Jörg Bart

University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany.

DOI: 10.4236/ojfd.2015.54035                

Abstract

Hydroabrasion in particulate flows plays an important role in various industrial and natural processes. To predict the effects of particulate flow and the resulting phenomena such as erosion/abrasion in a pipeline, channel or a fitting, it is essential to characterize the effects in a simple standardized geometry. For this purpose, it is vital to initially understand the particulate flow behavior and motion in such geometries. In the present work, two series of experimental works by application of the LDA measurement technique were successfully conducted. First, the particulate flow behavior at downstream of a flow conditioner inside a channel with square cross-section was investigated. Shorter lengths for fully development of velocity profile by using the self-constructed flow conditioner were observed. Moreover, the flow at downstream of the conditioner was modeled with the CFD tool (ANSYS-CFX V. 14.57) and the simulation results were compared and validated by the LDA experimental data. Better agreement between the simulation results and experimental data was observed in the fully developed region. However, there are some deviations due to the actual pressure loss through the experimental loop and the calculated pressure loss value, which includes some assumptions for the loss coefficients. Furthermore, the particulate flow behavior and vortex generation inside the deformed locations of a channel surface were studied in detail. With the help of the Matlab program, it was possible to calculate and visualize the velocity vectors for each measured point inside the channel accurately.

Keywords

Channel Flow, Flow Conditioner, Particulate Flow, CFD, LDA

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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