In the hydro-transport of biomass feedstock by pipeline to bio-refineries, the rheology of the biomass slurry directly impacts the specifications and, therefore the cost of pipeline components. In this study, the rheological characteristics of untreated fine wood chip slurries across a broad range of slurry temperatures (5–15 °C) and solids concentrations (3–15 wt% dry-matter) were experimentally studied. Slurry samples were pumped in a closed-circuit pipeline facility where slurry flow longitudinal pressure drops were simultaneously measured. The rheological characteristics of the samples were then measured using a rotational viscometer with a vane-in-cup geometry. At low slurry concentrations (˂6 wt% dry-matter), the biomass slurry exhibited Newtonian behaviour; however, non-Newtonian (shear-thinning) behaviour was seen at higher slurry concentrations. In order to approximate the corresponding rheological parameters, different well-known non-Newtonian viscosity models (power-law, Bingham, Casson, and Herschel-Bulkley) were applied to experimental data. In addition, a new approach for approximating the apparent viscosity of biomass slurries using longitudinal pressure drop measurements was introduced and validated. The method has not been previously applied to non-Newtonian biomass slurries under turbulent flow regimes.

中文翻译：

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生物质原料管道水力输送中纤维悬浮液流动的流变学

在通过管道将生物质原料水力输送到生物精炼厂的过程中，生物质浆料的流变性直接影响规格，从而影响管道组件的成本。在这项研究中，通过实验研究了未经处理的细木片浆液在浆液温度 (5–15 °C) 和固体浓度 (3–15 wt% 干物质) 范围内的流变特性。泥浆样品被泵入一个闭路管道设施，同时测量泥浆流纵向压降。然后使用具有杯中叶片几何形状的旋转粘度计测量样品的流变特性。在低浆液浓度（˂6 wt% 干物质）下，生物质浆液表现出牛顿行为；然而，在较高的浆料浓度下观察到非牛顿（剪切稀化）行为。为了近似相应的流变参数，将不同的众所周知的非牛顿粘度模型（幂律、宾厄姆、卡森和赫歇尔-布克利）应用于实验数据。此外，引入并验证了一种使用纵向压降测量近似生物质浆料表观粘度的新方法。该方法以前没有应用于湍流状态下的非牛顿生物质浆。引入并验证了一种使用纵向压降测量近似生物质浆料表观粘度的新方法。该方法以前没有应用于湍流状态下的非牛顿生物质浆。引入并验证了一种使用纵向压降测量来近似生物质浆料表观粘度的新方法。该方法以前没有应用于湍流状态下的非牛顿生物质浆。