Reduction of Power Consumption in Hydraulic Capsule Transport System

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Measurements were made in a straight horizontal pipeline of 28m length and of 40mm inside diameter. Capsules had wheels, being 180mm long and of 36mm outside diameter. The shape of front and rear edges was chosen among sphere, cone and plane. Capsule velocity was shown to be higher than that of water. The velocity of capsule having spherical edges was higher than those of conical and plane edges. When the capsules having different edges of equal mass were used, the velocity of each capsule reached to the common value with each other. The total pressure drop was found to become lower than that of water alone, when the capsules of spherical edges were used for higher water velocity. When 500ppm aqueous solution of polyethylene oxide was injected from the pipe axis before the capsule loader, the capsule velocity became about 1.5 times larger, and it is concluded that the use of polymer is amost effective method to reduce the power consumption when the most part of pressure drop is caused by the water flow. A numerical simulation was carried out by the method of characteristics for the capsules of plane edges, and it is shown that the capsule motion and the time history of pressure are satisfactorily simulated and that the pressure fluctuation becomes small for small loading period of capsules and for small capsule mass.