Quantification of swirling flow in hydraulic conveying from resistance tomography images

Efficient slurry transportation is vital for most coal preparation and other mineral processes. Helically formed pipes, which can be used to keep particulate solids in suspension, are applied to enhance the efficient distribution solids in slurries. Research into the deposition of particulate solids in a slurry flow downstream is essential to the design of these special pipe sections. Electrical resistance tomography is used to visualize and characterize the solid concentration profiles and settling processes. The design of a tomographic electrode sensor and the measurement of the swirling flow at different flow rates and at different downstream locations are reported. This has enabled quantitative indexes for the extent of solid dispersion to be deduced. Use of this new on-line data provides an informative design tool for hydraulic conveying.