Reduction of Power Consumption in Hydraulic Capsule Transport System

测量是在一条长度为28m，内径为40mm的直水平管道中进行的。胶囊有轮子，长180毫米，外径36毫米。前后边缘的形状在球体、圆锥、平面中选择。胶囊的速度高于水的速度。球形边缘的胶囊速度高于锥形边缘和平面边缘的胶囊速度。当使用不同边等质量的胶囊时，每个胶囊的速度都达到了共同的值。结果表明，在较高的水流速条件下，采用球形边缘的胶囊时，总压降比单水压降要小。当装载机前从管道轴注入500ppm的聚氧聚乙烯水溶液时，胶囊速度增大约1.5倍，当大部分压降是由水流引起时，使用聚合物是降低功率消耗的最有效方法。采用特征法对平面边缘的胶囊进行了数值模拟，结果表明，胶囊的运动和压力时程得到了较好的模拟，胶囊加载周期小，胶囊质量小，压力波动较小。

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.