Gas-Liquid-Solid Three-Phase Flows Through Pipes: Particle Velocity Measurement and Prediction

Particle transport issues in three-phase gas-liquid-solid flow systems continue to challenge petroleum as well as mining, petrochemical, biochemical, pharmaceutical, food, nuclear, pulp and paper industries. The poor knowledge of particle transport processes associated with three-phase gas-liquid-solid pipe flow has greatly hampered the design and cost-effectiveness of these systems. This paper presents experimental and computational studies on three-phase gas-liquid-solid pipe flow systems in order to increase the understanding of particle transport and dispersion behaviour as well as the conditions for solid particle deposition and erosion risk initiation. The non-invasive high-speed charge coupled device (CCD) measuring technique is used in this work to study the particle velocities in three-phase gas-liquid-solid pipe flow systems. A calculation method to predict particle velocity in the three-phase gas-liquid-solid pipe flow systems is proposed. The model is based on the fundamentals of the particle mechanics in the three-phase gas-liquid-solid pipe flow systems. A good agreement between experiment and prediction is obtained.