Erosive Wear in Pipelines at Pneumatic Conveying of Fine Silicon-Containing Materials

Erosive wear is a major operational problem in conveying of hard abrasive bulk materials like silica sand, fly ash, coal dust, etc., in pneumatic conveying systems. Erosion results in emergency downtime of pneumatic conveying installations of ash and slag removal and dust-preparation systems at TPPs caused by holes in pipelines. That leads to worsening of technical, economic, and ecological parameters of thermal power plants as a whole. In MPEI, a model of estimating erosion of rectilinear and curvilinear sections of pneumatic conveying pipelines has been developed. To validate the estimating model developed in the MPEI, experimental investigations in the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) are being carried on. This paper presents the results of the first set of joint Indo - Russian investigations carried out to study the influence of key operating variables on refinement of the erosion model.