Resistance calculation and engineering practice of high concentration unclassified tailings slurry transportation in long distance pipeline with large vertical height

The pumping distance for tailings slurry between the processing plant and the backfill station of Jiama Mine is rarely large in vertical high and horizontal space in China. The transportation distance of tailings slurry is about 398 m vertical height and 2.2 km horizontally, with particular technical difficulty. The accurate determination of the frictional resistance loss of slurry during pumping transportation is the key to the design of this pipeline transportation system. In this study, a rotary rheometer is used to measure the rheological parameters of the high-concentration tailings mortar in Jiama Mine to overcome the time-consuming, labour-intensive and high-cost problems of the current method of measuring pipeline friction loss by ring pipe test. The rheological properties of the tailings mortar conformed to the Bingham model when the concentration of the tailings mortar is 64%-68% through data fitting in this study. In combination with the Buckingham theory, the theoretical formula for the resistance loss along the pipe flow is deduced, and the friction resistance loss of the tailings slurry with different concentrations in the Jiama Mine is calculated. Hence, the required pumping pressure of the Jiama Mine is estimated to be 9 MPa. In addition, the actual pressure at the outlet of the pipeline is monitored; the results show that the estimation method for friction loss of the high-concentration tailings slurry in the Jiama Mine has good applicability to the actual situation, which provides a theoretical basis for pipeline transportation design in Jiama Mine and has essential reference significance for similar mines.