To calculate the axial dimensions of inkjet devices for hydraulic transport of sand and gravel materials

The article presents the results of the dredger in a deep deposit of sand and gravel materials. It was found that when the diameter of the suction pipe exceeds the diameter of the inlet mixing chamber by 150 mm, the actual pressure from the ejector does not exceed one meter, and with an increase in the supply of the suction pump as a result of a sharp jump in hydraulic resistance, the vacuum is disrupted. It was also found that the effect on the calculated compression ratio of the jet apparatus increases with an increase in the injection coefficient and the input velocity of the injected stream.

Spatio-Temporal Evolution Model of the Hydraulic Transport Characteristics of Particulate Solids

The hydraulic transport of solid materials is widely used in various industrial fields owing to its high efficiency, low cost, and environmental friendliness, and it has received extensive attention. However, the violent interaction between the liquid and solid phases during transportation makes the slurry flow strongly unsteady and heterogeneous, and it is difficult to use the existing mathematical models describing the motion characteristics in the hydraulic transport of slurry because of the limitations of a single theory or experimental data basis. In this study, considering the randomness and uncertainty in the transportation of solids, a spatio-temporal evolution model of the hydraulic transport characteristics of particulate solids was established. This model is suitable for hydraulic transport in pressure pipelines and open channels, and it can be used to analyze the influence of changes in the motion and property parameters of the liquid–solid phase on the characteristics of the temporal-spatial evolution of the slurry velocity and concentration distributions. The rationality of the model was verified through laboratory experiments. Through an interaction analysis of slurry components, this work explores the influence of the transport of solids on the slurry motion and property parameters, fills the gap in the evolution mechanism of the slurry velocity and concentration distributions in existing models, and overcomes the limitation that layer-based models can only be used in pressure pipelines. Therefore, it has important guiding significance for the engineering design of particulate solid hydraulic transport.

Using hydrodynamic and hydraulic modelling to study microbiological water quality issues at a backwater area of the Danube to support decision-making

The alluvial backwater areas of the Danube are valuable ecological habitats containing important drinking water resources. Due to the river regulation and the construction of power plants, the river water levels and natural dynamics of the backwater areas continuously decline, threatening their typical characteristics. The aim of this study was to evaluate how an increased connectivity of the backwater branch located in a nature-protected riverine floodplain (enabled by diverting river water into the backwater system via a weir) affects the microbiological quality of groundwater resources. The defined quality criterion was that the diversion measures must not lead to an increased detection frequency of faecal indicators in groundwater. The microbiological water quality of the Danube, its backwater branch and the groundwater was analysed from 2010 to 2013. E. coli was selected as bacterial indicator for recent faecal pollution. C. perfringens (spores) was analysed as indicator for persistent faecal pollution and potentially occurring pathogenic protozoa. We simulated the microbial transport from the Danube and the backwater river into groundwater using a 3‑D unsaturated-saturated groundwater model coupled with 2‑D hydrodynamic flow simulations. Scenarios for no diversion measures were compared with scenarios for an additional discharge of 3, 20 and 80 m3/s from the Danube River into the backwater branch. While the additional discharge of 20 and 80 m3/s of Danube water into the floodplain strongly improved the ecological status according to ecological habitat models, the hydraulic transport simulations showed that this would result in a deterioration of the microbiological quality of groundwater resources. The presented approach shows how hydraulic transport modelling and microbiological analyses can be combined to support decision-making.

Plant hydraulic transport controls transpiration sensitivity to soil water stress

Plant transpiration downregulation in the presence of soil water stress is a critical mechanism for predicting global water, carbon, and energy cycles. Currently, many terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs) represent this mechanism with an empirical correction function (β) of soil moisture – a convenient approach that can produce large prediction uncertainties. To reduce this uncertainty, TBMs have increasingly incorporated physically based plant hydraulic models (PHMs). However, PHMs introduce additional parameter uncertainty and computational demands. Therefore, understanding why and when PHM and β predictions diverge would usefully inform model selection within TBMs. Here, we use a minimalist PHM to demonstrate that coupling the effects of soil water stress and atmospheric moisture demand leads to a spectrum of transpiration responses controlled by soil–plant hydraulic transport (conductance). Within this transport-limitation spectrum, β emerges as an end-member scenario of PHMs with infinite conductance, completely decoupling the effects of soil water stress and atmospheric moisture demand on transpiration. As a result, PHM and β transpiration predictions diverge most for soil–plant systems with low hydraulic conductance (transport-limited) that experience high variation in atmospheric moisture demand and have moderate soil moisture supply for plants. We test these minimalist model results by using a land surface model at an AmeriFlux site. At this transport-limited site, a PHM downregulation scheme outperforms the β scheme due to its sensitivity to variations in atmospheric moisture demand. Based on this observation, we develop a new “dynamic β” that varies with atmospheric moisture demand – an approach that overcomes existing biases within β schemes and has potential to simplify existing PHM parameterization and implementation.

Pressure Loss Due to Hydraulic Transport of Large Solid Particles in Vertical Pipes Under Pulsating Flow Conditions

It is important to predict the pressure loss due to hydraulic transport of large solid particles for the design of subsea mining system. The mixture flow in the lifting pipe is expected to be unsteady in the actual mining system. The authors develop the one-dimensional mathematical model to predict the pressure loss of pulsating mixture flow in a static vertical pipe assuming that the flow in the pipe is fully developed. The experiment on hydraulic transport of solid particles was carried out to obtain the data for the investigation of the effects of flow fluctuation on pressure loss in a static vertical pipe. In the experiment, alumina beads and glass beads were used as solid particles, and the experimental parameters were mixture velocity, solid concentration, pulsating period, and pulsating amplitude. The proposed model was validated by a comparison with experimental data. Furthermore, we calculated the pressure losses due to hydraulic transports of polymetallic sulfide ores and manganese nodules using the proposed model. The calculation results showed that the fluctuating component in pulsating mixture flow should be considered for the design of lifting system and that the homogeneous mixture model could not be applied to the prediction of the pressure loss unless the mixture concentration is low and the pulsating period is short.