Turbulence modulation in liquid-continuous mixtures

大多数加拿大西部的资源工业依靠不同长度的管道来混合或输送复杂的液体、气体和固体混合物。一些例子包括油砂开采和沥青分离、硬岩开采中的尾矿处理、原油生产、核能发电、农业生产和疫苗生产和交付。通常，湍流混合是最重要的，因为混合物必须在整个悬浮介质中相对较好地分散。在某些情况下，具有非常明确的分散相特性的混合物必须作为最终产品或作为下游工艺的原料交付。人们普遍认识到，流动的性质，即湍流，强烈地影响分散相的状态：例如，分散相的浓度分布，或分散气体或液体的尺寸分布。一个或多个分散相的存在也会影响整个流动结构。分散相对流动结构的具体影响取决于分散相的特性，包括颗粒、液滴或气泡的浓度、密度和直径。提出的研究计划将研究多相液体连续混合物的管道输送。将研究液-液和液-固混合物。分散相对湍流强度的影响将在稀释和高浓度（体积比高达40%）混合物中进行评估。该研究项目的结果将促进目前对多相混合物管道运输的理解，并将有助于提高可开采油砂中沥青的回收率，有效地应用管道运输在原地（SAGD）生产设施中，并改善对环境负责的矿物尾矿混合物运输和放置的流动保证。

Most western Canadian resource industries rely on pipelines of various lengths to mix or move complex mixtures of liquids, gases and solids. A few examples include oil sand mining and bitumen separation, tailings disposal in hard-rock mining, crude oil production, nuclear power generation, agrichemical production and vaccine production and delivery. Often, turbulent mixing is of primary importance because of a mixture must be relatively well dispersed throughout the suspending medium. In some cases, a mixture with very specifically defined dispersed phase characteristics must be delivered as a final product or as a feedstock to a downstream process. It is widely recognized that the nature of the flow, i.e. turbulence, strongly affects the state of the dispersed phase: for example, the concentration distribution of the dispersed phase, or the size distribution for dispersed gases or liquids. It is also true that the presence of one or more dispersed phases affects the overall flow structure. The specific effect of the dispersed phase on the flow structure depends on the characteristics of the dispersed phase, including concentration, density and diameter of the particles, droplets or bubbles. The proposed research program will examine the pipeline transport of multiphase, liquid-continuous mixtures. Both liquid-liquid and liquid-solid mixtures will be studied. The effect of the dispersed phase on turbulent intensity will be evaluated for both dilute and highly concentrated (up to 40% by volume) mixtures. The results of this research program will advance the current understanding of pipeline transport of multiphase mixtures and will contribute to improved bitumen recovery from mineable oil sands, effective application of pipeline transport in in-situ (SAGD) production facilities and improved flow assurance for the environmentally responsible transport and placement of mineral tailings mixtures.