Rheological behavior of sugar alcohol slurries in horizontal circular tubes

Sugar alcohol slurries were proposed as a slurry heat medium for applications at low/medium temper-atures ( > 100 degrees C). The flow characteristics of the sugar alcohol slurries were investigated experimentally. The solid fraction and the flow velocity were varied and the pressure drop in the sugar alcohol slurries flowing through a horizontal circular tube was measured. A power-law model, in which the viscosity co -efficient and viscosity index were determined from the relationship between the shear rate and the shear stress, was discussed to describe the flow behavior of the slurries. For a mannitol slurry, the viscosity in-dex decreased as the solid fraction increased. The slurry flow could be described as a pseudoplastic fluid. For erythritol slurries, there was no significant correlation between the viscosity index, the viscosity co -efficient, and the solid fraction. Therefore, a power-law model could not be applied to erythritol slurry because the pipe friction coefficient could not be appropriately calculated. The differences of rheological behavior between the erythritol slurry and mannitol slurry seem to be occurred by the different flow patterns in each case. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.