Slurry flows

A slurry is a solid-liquid mixture with very high solid loading (up to 50%). These flows are frequently encountered in the mining industry, where slurry pipelines are used to transport the mineral concentrate to a mining processing plant near a mine. Other applications involving these flows are the CHOPS processes in the oil&gas industry and the fluidized beds in the chemical industry. The modeling of slurry flows is particularly complex as it must account properly for the interactions between the fluid and the particles, between the particles and the solid walls, and among the particles themselves. In our research group we are working at the development of new computational models for the simulation of slurry flows and, in general, solid-liquid mixtures at different solid loading.

Selected pubblications

1. Messa GV, Malavasi S, 2015, “Improvements in the numerical prediction of fully-suspended slurry flows in horizontal pipes”, Powder Technology, Vol. 270, pp. 358-367.
2. Messa GV, Malavasi S, 2014, “Numerical prediction of dispersed turbulent liquid–solid flows in vertical pipes”, Journal of Hydraulic Research, Vol. 52, No. 5, pp. 684-692.
3. Messa GV, Malavasi S, 2014, “Numerical prediction of particle distribution of solid-liquid slurries in straight pipes and bends”, Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 356-372.
4. Messa GV, Malavasi S, 2014, “Computational investigation of liquid-solid slurry flow through an expansion in a rectangular duct”, Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics, Vol. 62, No. 3, pp. 234-240.
5. Messa GV, Malin M, Malavasi S, 2014, “Numerical prediction of fully-suspended slurry flow in horizontal pipes”, Powder Technology, Vol. 256, pp. 61-70.
6. Malavasi S, Messa GV, Ferrarese G, 2013, “Solid-Liquid Flow Through a Wellhead Choke Valve”, Proceedings of the ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping PVP2013 Conference, Paris, France.

Erosion prediction

The erosion consists of the removal of material from a surface subjected to the impingements of solid particles dragged by a fluid. The erosion is a very serious concern in the oil&gas industry, causing damages to the plants, high repair cost, and significant loss of income. The prediction of erosion requires the knowledge of the fluid dynamic properties of the abrasive particles at the time of their impingement against the eroding surface, but the considerable computational burden of the computational models currently used for determining these properties prevents (and even precludes) the possibility to estimate erosion in case of complex flows. Our research is aimed at developing innovative computational methods for overcoming these limitations, thereby allowing erosion prediction with affordable computational cost.

MS Theses

• Ingrosso I, 2014, “A strategy for erosion prediction by means of Eulerian-Eulerian models”, MD Thesis in Math Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy (in Italian).
• Righini A, 2014, “Development of a benchmark case for the study of impact erosion”, MD Thesis in Civil Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy (in Italian).

Professore Associato - Associate Professor

e-mail: stefano.malavasi(at)polimi.it
Skype: stefanomalavasi

tel. : + 39 02 2399 6261 (diretto - direct); + 39 02 2399 6200 (segreteria - secretary)

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Assegnista Post. Doc. 

e-mail: gianandrea.messa(at)polimi.it

tel. : + 39 02 2399 6287 (diretto - direct); + 39 02 2399 6200 (segreteria - secretary)

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