Numerical simulation of the motion of polypropylene-particles in a horizontal straight pipe

The dirt inside natural gas pipeline is a serious problem during operation. To solve this, a slurry-based pipeline cleaning method is introduced in this paper, taking advantage of particle-pipe collision during transportation, focusing on the slurry composed of polypropylene-particle and water. As the mixing state of the particles and the carrier is a crucial factor during the removal of debris, this is investigated utilizing computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method coupling simulation (CFD-DEM), in which the influence of carrier velocity and particle diameter are addressed. Results show that particles tend to accumulate at the top of the pipe during motion but reduce as flow velocity increases. In addition, at a specific flow velocity, small particles are distributed more uniformly than larger ones. This research provides an understanding of the slurry flow with light particles and establishes a solid foundation for this cleaning method's practical application.