Effect of the Length and Diameter of a Cylindrical Capsule on the Pressure Drop in a Horizontal Pipeline

Capsule pipeline research involves the study of the flow in a pipe of a long train of spherical or cylindrical capsules (hollow containers) filled with minerals or other materials including hazardous liquids. The behavior of the capsule train will depend upon the behavior of each capsule in the train and the hydrodynamic influence of one capsule on another. Designers are in need of a general correlation to calculate pressure drop in a capsule pipeline. Researchers, so far, have used rather simplified empirical and semi-empirical correlations for pressure drop calculations, the range and application of which is fairly limited. A mathematical correlation developed for pressure drop in cylindrical capsule of equi-density as its carrying medium is presented here. Based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) a numerical solution has been obtained from the equations governing the turbulent flow around a concentric cylindrical capsule in a hydraulically smooth pipe section. The diameter of the pipe used in present study is 0.1m while that of capsules are in the range of 50–80% of the pipe diameter. The investigation was carried out in the practical range of 0.2 ≤Vb≥ 1.6 m/sec. The computationally obtained data set over a wide range of flow conditions have then been used to develop a rigorous model for pressure drop. Using this model the pressure drop along the pipeline can be computed which then can be used to calculate pumping requirements.