Abstract
Laminar pulsating flow of a clay slurry in a circular pipe was studied experimentally. The flow behaviour of the slurry was approximated as that of a Bingham plastic fluid. The addition of sinusoidal pulsating fluctuation to a steady pressure gradient resulted in enhancement of the flow rate, because of the non-Newtonian behaviour of the slurry. The flow enhancement increased with the following conditions: (1) an increase in pulsating amplitude, (2) a decrease in pulsating frequency and (3) a decrease in the mean pressure gradient. The flow enhancement can be expressed as a function of three dimensionless groups: Stokes number for a Bingham plastic fluid, Bingham number and the pressure gradient ratio. An empirical correlation among these dimensionless numbers is presented. All experimental data could be closely correlated with respect to the flow enhancement.
