Sand Transport Indoor Experimental Facility

This facility, called indoor experimental facility (Figure 4), has been used to obtain sand transport data in both single-phase and multiphase flow regimes when carrier liquid was either water or viscosified water.
The indoor experimental facility mainly consists of four pumps, four tanks, a test loop section (pipe) and a filter.
The test loop has a 2-inch ID, clear acrylic pipe for easy visual observation which can be replaced with a 4-inch diameter pipe for larger pipe experiments. Tanks and pumps are connected to the loop using 1-inch and 2-inch diameter PVC pipes. The entry region of the test loop is 2-inch diameter clear acrylic pipe which is located 23 ft (7 m) upstream of the observation section. Because of the fragile nature of the clear acrylic material, the elbows at the end of the loop are made of rubber and connected using hose clamps. This allows the elbows to flex with more energetic flows. To investigate the effect of pipe inclination, recent modifications have allowed the pipe to be tilted at 5 degrees.
There are three 125 gallon tanks in the experimental facility. Two of them are used to hold liquid-sand mixture called Slurry Tank 1 and Slurry Tank 2. Tank 1 is connected to a medium-sized pump and is used for applications when medium or low liquid flow rates are required. There is also a 15 gallon tank equipped with a mixer used specifically for low-liquid loading experiments.
There are four pneumatic positive displacement pumps used in the inside experimental facility. A small pump with maximum capacity of 5 GPM is used for very low liquid flow rates and more specifically for low liquid loading experiments. A medium-sized pump with maximum capacity of 18 GPM is used for pumping liquid-sand mixture into the test loop at medium mixture flow rates. A large pump with maximum capacity of 54 GPM is used for higher liquid flow rates. There is also a large pump connected to the discharge tank and is used for pumping the mixture through the filter and returning it to the slurry tanks.
Three 100 cfm, 120-gallon Ingersoll-Rand air compressors are used to run the pumps and provide air for the test loop. Two of the compressors can be utilized to provide air for the loop through either a 1-inch or 2-inch ID steel pipe (depending on the magnitude of the flow rate). The third compressor provides air for the pumps. The minimum possible air flow rate to the loop is 0.5 cfm, and the maximum possible air flow rate is 175 cfm. Air and liquid flow measurements are made with a variety of flow meters.