MIXING OF MINERAL SLURRIES.

A coarse-slurry bench test was investigated using a commercial mixing tank, agitator, motor, and torque scale to measure the power required to suspend completely mineral slurries in a mixing tank. The objective was to determine if the mixing input power to achieve complete suspension could be correlated with the energy requirements necessary to transport aqueous slurries of coarse minerals in suspension in pipelines. Test data were obtained for the mixing of three sizes of coal and one size of sand, slurried in water at various concentrations. The data were plotted as parameters of power number versus the Reynolds number of mixing. The data indicated a strong potential for correlating slurry mixing power to energy requirements for pipeline transportation of slurries.