An airlift pump facility of 200 m length was designed and constructed; pump experiments were conducted for water and two types of highly-viscous shear-thinning slurries. The primary objective of this study is to obtain quantitative data on the performance characteristics of slurries for deep-sea mining. Experimental results showed the capability of the airlift pump for the slurries. The airflow rates which give high discharge flow rates for the slurries were nearly the same with that of water. The difference in the viscosity of the working fluids was observed in the amount of the discharge flow rate. A simple simulation method to predict steady-state pump performance was also developed, and the results were validated by comparing with the present experimental results. For water, simulation results showed good agreement with experimental results. For the slurries, the simulations also showed good agreement for low airflow rate conditions. However, for high airflow rates, a discrepancy between the simulation and experimental results was observed. A reliable pipe friction model for gas-slurry mixtures in high Reynolds number region for the slurry with a small power index is required to improve the prediction accuracy of pump performance in large-scale airlift pumps.

设计建造了200 m长的气升泵设施；对水和两种高粘度剪切稀化浆液进行了泵实验。本研究的主要目的是获得有关深海采矿泥浆性能特征的定量数据。实验结果表明气升泵对泥浆的能力。为浆液提供高排放流速的气流速率几乎与水相同。在排出流量的量中观察到工作流体的粘度差异。还开发了一种预测稳态泵性能的简单模拟方法，并通过与目前的实验结果进行比较来验证结果。对于水，模拟结果与实验结果吻合良好。对于浆液，模拟也显示了低气流速率条件的良好一致性。然而，对于高气流速率，观察到模拟和实验结果之间的差异。为提高大型气升泵泵性能的预测精度，需要建立可靠的高雷诺数区气浆混合物管道摩擦模型，用于小功率指标的泥浆。