An Experimental Investigation of Settling Velocity of Spherical and Industrial Sand Particles in Newtonian and Non Newtonian Fluids using Particle Image Shadowgraph

• Author / Creator

  Shahi,Shivam

• The particle settling velocity is a fundamental requirement and key variable for modeling sedimentation processes and simulating particle transportations, especially when suspension is a main process. An experimental study has been conducted to measure the settling velocities of spherical particles with variable size and density as well as naturally occurring sands with non-uniform shape in Newtonian fluids and Power law fluids of variable viscosity and density. The experimental technique (laser based image processing) is unique in its kind and it is very efficient in measuring the size, shape, and settling velocity of the particles, simultaneously. Experiments on spherical particles are conducted using different sizes of glass spheres (0.5-2 mm) in four different concentrations of glycerol-water (10-40% by volume) mixtures and four different mixtures of CMC (0.14-0.29 wt%).
  In addition, settling velocity of quartz sands particles under four sieve sizes in the range of 0.35mm-1.18mm have also been measured in Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid medium using PIS technique. Rheological studies of Glycerine, CMC and Carbopol solutions have been carried out and different empirical correlations to predict the drag and settling velocity of spheres in Newtonian and Non-Newtonian fluid have also been developed. Similar correlations have been developed for the natural sands to predict the settling velocity in different fluid mediums using different equivalent diameter. Comparing to the all published models, the new correlations are found to be more accurate in their predictive capabilities with smaller margin of error. The error in prediction of settling velocity by different developed correlations is coming in the range of 4.1%-15%.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Natural Sands
  • Shadowgraph
  • Settling Velocity

• Graduation date

  Fall 2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3NG90

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.