Measurements of pressure drop in turbulent pipe flows of highly loaded HDPE slurries

Argonne National Laboratory, under sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy, is developing advanced energy transmission fluids for improving thermal system performance. The efforts are based on two concepts; friction reduction additives and phase change particles. These fluids are then comprised of the phase change particles, friction reduction additive, and carrier fluid. Some of the important technical issues that hinder implementation of the advanced energy transmission fluids concept are (i) the possibility of significant increase in the pumping power required to move highly loaded slurries, and (ii) the feasibility of using friction reduction additives with phase change slurries. This experimental study leads to conclusions that are essential to the development of advanced energy transmission fluids for DHC applications: (i) pressure drop penalty is negligible in turbulent pipe flows of highly loaded HDPE slurries and (ii) a friction reduction additive can be successfully combined with a phase change slurry for significant pressure reduction in DHC systems. The practicality of using highly loaded particle/liquid slurries relative to such matters as pumpability, heat exchanger performance, valve controllability, flow blockage, pressure drops in pipe fittings, etc. needs to be explored