Chapter 15: Pneumatic Conveying

Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers, 5th Edition

by Stephen Hall
This Excel workbook includes Visual Basic for Application function subroutines.
Macros must be enabled for them to work.
ChemEng Software sells an Excel template called PIPESIZE.
www.chemengsoftware.com
PIPESIZE sizes pipes for gases and liquids. It includes a database of properties for piping materials, fluids,
roughness values, and recommended velocities. Order on-line or by telephone, 24-h/d; credit cards accepted.
Inputs
Conveying Fluid US Units
Conveying gas Air
Temperature F 70 C
Assumed supply psia 24.1 kPa
Discharge pressure psia 14.7 kPa
Minimum velocity ft/s 40 m/s
Solids
Solids rate lb/h 1,800 kg/h
Mean particle diameter ft 0.00025 m
Mass loading ratio 5
Slip factor 0.8
Solids friction factor 0.02
Solids density lb/ft3 155 kg/m3
Pipeline
Horizontal lengths ft 100 m
Vertical - up ft 30 m
Vertical - down ft - m
Hose ft - m
Divert valves -
Bends 2
Intermediate Values
Temperature K 294 K
Molecular weight 29.0
Viscosity cP 0.01842 mPa-s
Density lb/ft3 0.122 kg/m3
Gas flow rate lb/h 360 kg/h
Pipe diameter at Vmin in 1.94 mm
Pipe
Nominal diameter in 1.50 DN
Inside diameter in 1.500 mm
Roughness ft 0.00050 m
Actual velocity ft/s 67 m/s
Equivalent length ft 168 m/s
Calculations - Output
Gas Pressure Drop
Reynolds number 82,277
Friction factor 0.030
Calc'd discharge P psia 14.7 (0.00) kPa
Gas pressure drop psi 2.4 kPa
Solids Acceleration
Problem Statement:
Estimate the pressure drop for dilute phase pneumatic conveying
Acceleration pressure psi 0.47 kPa
Conveying Solids
Solids conveyance psi 6.08 kPa
Lifting through vertical psi 0.16 kPa
Through elbows psi 0.35 kPa
Total pressure drop psi 9.4 kPa
SI Units
Air
15.0
101.5
101.4
12.2
816
0.00008
5
0.8
0.02
2,483
30.5
9.1
-
-
-
2
288
29.0
0.01812
1.23
163
62.02
50
49.25
0.0001524
19
52
64,714
0.029
72.2
6.9
1.84
18.52
0.69
1.38
29.3
Conveying Fluids
Name MW C To mu
o
Air 29 120 291.15 0.00001827
Nitrogen 28.013 111 300.55 0.00001781
Pipe Wall Thickness for Schedule
Size Schedule O.D. Thickness I.D. DN 10 20 30
0.125 80 0.405 0.095 0.215 6 0.049 sched? sched?
0.250 80 0.540 0.119 0.302 8 0.065 sched? sched?
0.375 80 0.675 0.126 0.423 10 0.065 sched? sched?
0.500 80 0.840 0.147 0.546 15 0.083 sched? sched?
0.750 80 1.050 0.154 0.742 20 0.083 sched? sched?
1.000 80 1.315 0.179 0.957 25 0.109 sched? sched?
1.500 80 1.900 0.200 1.500 40 0.109 sched? sched?
2.000 80 2.375 0.218 1.939 50 0.109 sched? sched?
3.000 40 3.500 0.216 3.068 80 0.120 sched? sched?
4.000 40 4.500 0.237 4.026 100 0.120 sched? sched?
6.000 40 6.625 0.280 6.065 150 0.134 sched? sched?
8.000 40 8.625 0.322 7.981 200 0.148 0.250 0.277
10.000 30 10.750 0.307 10.136 250 0.165 0.250 0.307
12.000 30 12.750 0.330 12.090 300 0.180 0.250 0.330
14.000 30 14.000 0.375 13.250 350 0.188 0.312 0.375
16.000 30 16.000 0.375 15.250 400 0.188 0.312 0.375
18.000 30 18.000 0.438 17.124 450 0.188 0.312 0.438
20.000 30 20.000 0.500 19.000 500 0.218 0.375 0.500
24.000 30 24.000 0.562 22.876 600 0.250 0.375 0.562
30.000 20 30.000 0.500 29.000 750 0.312 0.500 0.625
1
2
40 80
0.068 0.095
0.088 0.119
0.091 0.126
0.109 0.147
0.113 0.154
0.133 0.179
0.145 0.200
0.154 0.218
0.216 0.300
0.237 0.337
0.280 0.432
0.322 0.500
0.365 0.594
0.406 0.688
0.438 0.750
0.500 0.844
0.562 0.938
0.594 1.031
0.688 1.219
sched? sched?