Experimental characterization of particle-laden air flow in a horizontal pipe

In many engineering applications, movement of micron and submicron size solid particles with compressed air or gas causes major engineering problems as in the case of black powder in oil and gas industry. Therefore, understanding its physical and flow dynamics characteristics inside a pipeline can be very useful to efficiently manage pipelines contamination issues. This paper presents an experimental study carried out to simulate characteristics of air - sand particles flow through a transparent horizontal pipe with various flow conditions. Experimental analysis focuses on determination of critical pickup velocity of the solid particles and measurement of pressure drop across the sand bed of various blockage ratios. Results have been compared with previous studies in literature. Limited experiments are conducted using black powder samples as well. Comparison of results shows vast deviation between sand and black powder behavior.