Flow of solid-liquid mixtures with different density and size of particles was investigated in a horizontal pipe loop. Concentration distribution in the vertical profile was measured with use of a radiometric method. The paper analyses the influence of density and size of solid particles on the vertical profile of the mixture density and concentration in a horizontal pipe.
The density distribution in transversal cross-section of the pipe is an important parameter for understanding the physical mechanism and description of the flow of two-phase mixture of a liquid and solid particles. In a case of mixtures that contains particles of different diameters, the vertical profile of solids concentration, within the range of applicable flow velocities, is curvilinear (heterogeneous distribution).
Several methods have been applied to determine density profile of twophase liquid-solids mixture flow. The first work in that field was done by Pechenkin (1969), who introduced a photographic method with use of a high-speed camera, where solids were represented by particles of special kind of glass. Few years later a similar method was adopted by Ayukawa (1970). In the Russian school represented by Silin at al. from Kiev, Pitot tube of special construction has been adopted (Silin et al. 1971). Among the first ones, a group of scientists from Mining and Metallurgy University of Kraków and Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Science have adopted radioisotopic technique for precise determination of density distribution in the transversal cross-section of a pipe (Przewłocki, 1979). Later this method was also used by Shook (1991) and Wiedenroth (1984), who have measured profiles of mixtures density distribution in the transversal cross-section of a pipe. Generally saying, methods of density (concentration) profile measurements may be divided into invasive and non-invasive ones.
