Simulation and experiment of backfilling pipeline transportation of solid-liquid two-phase flow based on CFD

In order to solve the gravity transportation problems of backfilling slurry by pipelines in Hemushan Iron Mine, solid-liquid two-phase flow theory and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method were used. Two-phase flow control equations of backfilling slurry in the pipeline through the gravity transportation were established. The three-dimensional (3D) mesh model of real pipeline was established using soft Gambit and the numerical simulation was conducted in the 3D solver of Fluent. Through analyzing resistance loss of the pipeline and force condition of the elbow, optimal transportation concentration and volume flow of the backfilling slurry were acquired. The slump test and natural settlement test of backfilling slurry and in-situ industrial transportation test verify the reliability of the numerical simulation results. The research results provide important basis for the parameter selection of the permanent backfilling system in the mine.