Experimental investigation on inhomogeneity of ice packing factor in ice slurry flow

We investigated inhomogeneity in ice slurry, which can pose problems such as sudden increase in pressure drop and blockages in flow. Although in many previous studies fully dispersed ice slurry flow is assumed homogeneous, inhomogeneity appears as a variation in physical properties in the actual measurements. From experiments, it was found that the fluctuation in pressure drop is relatively small at the beginning, but becomes larger after long-term periods. Additionally, the ice particle size included in the ice slurry also affects this fluctuation. We supposed the fluctuation is caused by the variation in IPF, because it appears only in laminar flow. This implies ice slurry is not homogeneous after long flow periods. From the present study, the variation of IPF was estimated to be 2.6 wt% at maximum. Although the physical mechanism of the variation in IPF has not been clarified, we suggest that it is a consequence of the accumulation/adhesion of ice particles in the pipe.