Flow characteristics of ice slurry in narrow tubes

Flow characteristics of ice slurry were experimentally investigated using narrow tubes. Reynolds number, the diameter of the tubes and the ice packing factor (IPF) were varied as the experimental parameters. Theoretical analysis was carried out using the experimental results. For laminar flow, it was found that the ratio of the coefficients of pipe friction increases with the IPF, and the rate of increase is high in the case of a low Reynolds number. For turbulent flow, the ratio of the coefficients of pipe friction was 1 for each condition in the case of a low IPF. The ratio of coefficients of pipe friction then decreased slightly at a particular IPF and increased with the IPF in the high-IPF region. In theoretical analysis, it was found that the flow characteristics of ice slurry can be treated as those of pseudoplastic fluid and clarified using the apparent Reynolds number.