Ice/water slurry blocking phenomenon at a tube orifice

Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2002 Oct:972:171-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2002.tb04569.x.

Abstract

The phenomenon of ice-particle/water mixture blocking flow through a pipeline is a problem that needs to be solved before mixture flow can be applied for practical use in cold energy transportation in a district cooling system. In this work, the blocking mechanism of ice-particle slurry at a tube orifice is investigated and a criterion for blocking is presented. The cohesive nature of ice particles is shown to cause compressed plug type blocking and the compressive yield stress of a particle cluster is presented as a measure for the cohesion strength of ice particles.