Long-Distance Slurry Pipelines

This work presents the basic information needed to understand the history, the hydraulic concepts, and equipment used when planning, designing, and constructing long-distance slurry pipelines. Yearly these pipelines carry millions of tons copper, iron ore, phosphate, bauxite, nickel ore, kaolin, and other solid material over thousands of kilometers. This transportation mode has proven to be very safe, economical, and environmentally friendly as demonstrated by its growth curve. The keys to pipeline success are many including proper route planning, hydraulic design, and equipment selection. The slurry hydraulics are complex but are presented in detail needed to understand slurry characterization and lab testing used to produce pipeline pressure losses and minimum velocities. Typical equipment used for pumping, valving, storing, mixing, and controlling the pipelines are presented.