Author(s)

M. Belhadri, A. Nemdili & A. Ladouani

Abstract

In this paper rheology and pressure loss measurements of fully developed silt flow in circular, axisymetric and horizontal conduits are presented. The silt samples studied have been taken at two different distances from the considered dam reservoir. It was found that for small values of silt concentrations, the silt behaves like a Newtonian fluid. Above a concentration limit, its behavior is like a Bingham one; a non-Newtonian behavior. The measured pressure losses indicated that the pressure loss of silt mixture flow increase with increasing mixture concentration. The comparison of pressure loss coefficients characteristics for the three different conduits show that the pressure loss coefficient is independent of the conduit diameter. Keywords: silt, concentration, rheology, pressure loss, conduits. 1 Introduction Fluids such as silt, crude oil and its derived products occurring in transport installations have a complex flow structure and behavior. Much of their flow aspects in conduits and singularities are very little known. Silt transported by Algerian rivers and settling in dam reservoirs has physical properties of soils of the clay type. Previous works have shown that granulometry of this silt at the deflocculated state varies between 1 and 50 µm and a distinct granulometric classification exits in the basin of each reservoir.

Keywords

silt, concentration, rheology, pressure loss, conduits.