Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Particle Size on Pressure Characteristics in Sand-Laden Flows with Coarse Particles in a Horizontal Pipe

This paper investigates the influence of coarse particle size on pressure characteristics through horizontal pipe transportation experiments of coarse particles and sand-laden water. As particle size increases, the thin and long grain accumulation layer forming at the pipe bottom and particle clusters above the layer vanish, most grains roll and bounce more quickly, the instantaneous pressure fluctuation intensity increases exponentially, and the time-averaged pressure decreases linearly along the flow direction. The fluctuating pressure probability density tends to obey a Gaussian distribution, and the turbulence power below 16 Hz increases. After adding fine sand constituting sand-laden water flows, the instantaneous pressure fluctuation intensity, transportation energy loss speed and fluctuating pressure amplitudes increase. With increasing particle size, the fitted Gaussian distribution of the fluctuating pressure probability density changes from thin to short and wide, and the spectral power of the measured pressure fluctuations increases within the resolvable frequency range, especially in the range from 8 to 10 Hz.