Solid-liquid particulate slurries having the same median particle size but two different particle size distributions have been studied in a 22-mm I.D. horizontal pipeline flow loop. Slurries were composed of spherical glass beads mixed in water. Particle size distribution of the glass beads was tailor-made to fit a Rosin-Rammler distribution with median diameter of 50μm. The spreads of the distribution were 1.7 and 4,corresponding to wide and narrow distributions. The relationship between the pressure drop in the straight horizontal sections of the flow loop and the mean slurry flow velocity was determined for different solids volume concentrations ranging from 10% to 25%. Critical deposition velocity was measured from visual observations. The Oroskar-Turian semi-empirical correlation for critical velocity was used for comparison with the measured data. The existing Wasp et al. empirical model that predicts the pressure gradient for slurry flow in a horizontal pipeline was used to describe the pressure drop data.
