Three Phase Upward Flow in a Vertical Pipe
Many specialized technologies need to be developed to deal with the mobilization, retrieval, transport and reliable delivery of large amounts of toxic and radioactive waste to pretreatment facilities. At these facilities the waste is prepared for long term, unsupervised storage. At Hanford as well as other DOE nuclear sites, there are many underground storage tanks that are holding many millions of gallons of toxic and radioactive waste. A class of these storage tanks can utilize pneumatic conveying for the retrieval of scarified solids that are occasionally laced with sticky sludge, followed by slurry transport to pretreatment facilities. The formation of a thin liquid film that travels upwards along the internal wall of a vertical retrieval pipe may prevent those particles that are laced with the sticky sludge from adhering to it and eventually causing instability and blockage. In this paper we develop an approach to the design of a three-phase gas-solid-liquid flow system that could transport scarified solid particles, including sticky particles, pneumatically through a vertical pipe. A liquid film is introduced and maintained along the pipe's inner wall to act as a lubricant that ensure that sticky particles will continue to be transported without permanently adhering to the pipe wall. The system's operating conditions are within the boundaries of the annular dispersed region on a typical flow pattern map of vertical flow of a gas-liquid mixture. High gas superficial velocities combined with low liquid superficial velocities, conditions that satisfy the requirement and geometry of our proposed system, characterize such a region.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 888717
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-34903; EY4049110
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Multiphase Flow. ICMF 2001, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 27-June 1, 2001, 13 pages
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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