1,1 Applications of Slurry Transport Vast tonnages are pumped every year in the form of solid-liquid mixtures, known as slurries. The application which involves the largest quantities is the dredging industry, continually maintaining navigation in harbours and rivers, altering coastlines and winning material for landfill and construction purposes. As a single dredge may be required to maintain a throughput of 7000 tonnes of slurry per hour or more, very large centrifugal pumps are used. Figures 1-1 and 1-2 show, respectively, an exterior view of this type of pump, and a view of a large dredge-pump impeller (Addie & Helmley, 1989). The manufacture of fertiliser is another process involving massive slur- transport operations. Li Florida, phosphate matrix is recovered by huge draglines in open-pit mining operations. It is then slurried, and pumped to the wash plants through pipelines with a typical length of about 10 kilometres. Each year some 34 million tonnes of matrix are transported in this manner. This industry employs centrifugal pumps that are generally smaller than those used in large dredges, but impeller diameters up to 1. 4 m are common, and drive capacity is often in excess of 1000 kW. The transport distance is typically longer than for dredging applications, and Chapter 1 Figure LI. Testing a dredge pump at the GIW Hydraulic Laboratory Figure 1. 2. Impeller for large dredge pump 1. Introduction 3 hence a series of pumping stations is often used. Figure 1-3 shows a boost- pump installation in a phosphate pipeline.
About the Author: Robert Visintainer, P.E. has worked in the design, testing, and manufacture of centrifugal slurry pumps since 1981. As Chief Engineer and presently VP of Engineering for GIW Industries, he has been responsible for the development of slurry pumps and wear resisting materials, and he has contributed to many innovations in pump design and wear prediction technology over the past 30 years. He is also responsible for pump testing, selection software, slurry testing, and technical training in GIW's unique Hydraulic Test Lab. An honors graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, he holds degrees in mechanical engineering and physics; contributes to scientific conferences, journal papers, and short courses on a regular basis; and is the 2021 recipient of the ASME Worthington Medal for eminent achievement in the pumping industry. Visintainer joined the teaching staff of the annual GIW Slurry Course in 2006 and has hosted the course since 2010. His contributions to the 4th edition textbook, "Slurry Transport in Centrifugal Pumps," have focused on slurry pump design, wear materials, and slurry system operation.
Prof. Václav Matousek is full professor of water engineering and water management at Czech Technical University in Prague, with over 30 years of international research experience in slurry transport. He holds an MSc (1986) in civil engineering from the Czech Technical University and a Ph.D. (with honors, 1997) in dredging engineering from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. His research focuses primarily on two-phase flows, with special attention to pipeline transport of slurries, slurry pumping, rheology of mixtures, sediment transport in open channels, and river morphology. He has published more than 130 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings. Additionally, he teaches university courses on hydraulics and river engineering and industrial courses on two-phase flows. Matousek joined the teaching staff of the annual GIW Slurry Course in 2007 and has co-authored the 4th edition textbook, with focus on the classification and modeling of settling slurry flows.
Dr. Lionel Pullum trained as an instrument and production engineer in London, England, where he obtained an honors degree in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in pneumatic conveying and laser diagnostics. In 1979, he joined the Division of Mineral Engineering at the Commonwealth Science Industry and Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia's foremost research body, and became an international authority on the hydraulic conveying of coarse minerals in non-Newtonian slurries. Since 1988, as a private consulting engineer, he has participated in design projects across the mining industry and has continued his active collaboration with the R&D community through the CSIRO, Australian Mineral Research Association (AMIRA), and the National Energy Research, Development & Demonstration Council (NERDDC). He has produced over 270 publications, received various awards, and, in 2015, was made Honorary Fellow at the CSIRO. Pullum joined the teaching staff of the annual GIW Slurry Course in 2005 and has co-authored the 4th edition textbook, with focus on particle mechanics, non-Newtonian slurries, and instrumentation.
Prof. Emeritus Anders Sellgren was formerly head of the Division of Water Resources Engineering at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden. He holds a BS in mathematics from the University of Gothenburg and a MS in civil engineering from Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, where he also holds a Ph.D. in hydraulics. In the early 1980s, he worked as a research associate at the Mining and Minerals Resources Research Institute at the University of Arizona, U.S.A. He has since accumulated over 40 years of international experience in the research, development, and design of various slurry pumping systems, has published numerous academic papers in the field, and has contributed to the first edition of the ANSI/HI Centrifugal Slurry Pump Standard. He joined the teaching staff of the annual GIW Slurry Course in 1989, contributed to the 1st edition of the textbook, and was a co-author in the 2nd and 3rd editions. He has been an important co-author of the 4th edition on many topics, but especially in the areas of centrifugal pump solids effects and pump-system interactions.
