Carl W. Enderlin

Shear Strength Measurement Benchmarking Tests for K Basin Sludge Simulants

Equipment development and demonstration testing for sludge retrieval is being conducted by the K Basin Sludge Treatment Project (STP) at the MASF (Maintenance and Storage Facility) using sludge simulants. In testing performed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (under contract with the CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company), the performance of the Geovane instrument was successfully benchmarked against the M5 Haake rheometer using a series of simulants with shear strengths (τ) ranging from about 700 to 22,000 Pa (shaft corrected). Operating steps for obtaining consistent shear strength measurements with the Geovane instrument during the benchmark testing were refined and documented.

Scaled Experiments Evaluating Pulse Jet Mixing of Slurries

Pulse jet mixing (PJM) tests with noncohesive solids in Newtonian liquid were conducted at three geometric scales to support the design of mixing systems for the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. The test data will be used to develop mixing models. The models predict the cloud height (the height to which solids will be lifted by the PJM action) and the critical suspension velocity (the minimum velocity needed to ensure all solids have been lifted from the floor), two parameters measured during the tests. From the cloud height estimate, the concentration of solids near the vessel floor and the minimum velocity predicted to lift solids can be calculated. The test objective was to observe the influence of vertically downward-directed jets on noncohesive solids in a series of scaled tanks with several bottom shapes. The test tanks and bottom shapes included small- and large-scale tanks with elliptical bottoms, a mid-scale tank with a spherical bottom, and a large-scale tank with a flanged and dished bottom. During testing, the downward-directed jets were operated in either a steady flow condition or a pulsed (periodic) flow condition. The mobilization of the solids resulting from the jets was evaluated based on: the motion/agitation of the particulate on the tank floor and the elevation the solids reach within the tank; the height the solids material reaches in the tank is referred to as the cloud height (HC ).Copyright

Applying Hanford Tank Mixing Data to Define Pulse Jet Mixer Operation

Pulse jet mixed (PJM) process vessels are being developed for storing, blending, and chemical processing of nuclear waste slurries at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) to be built at Hanford, Washington. These waste slurries exhibit variable process feed characteristics including Newtonian to non-Newtonian rheologies over a range of solids loadings. Waste feed to the WTP from the Hanford Tank Farms will be accomplished via the Waste Feed Delivery (WFD) system which includes million-gallon underground storage double-shell tanks (DSTs) with dual-opposed jet mixer pumps. Experience using WFD type jet mixer pumps to mobilize actual Hanford waste in DSTs may be used to establish design threshold criteria of interest to pulse jet mixed process vessel operation.This paper describes a method to evaluate the pulse jet mixed vessel capability to process waste based on information obtained during mobilizing and suspending waste by the WFD system jet mixer pumps in a DST. Calculations of jet velocity and wall shear stress in a specific pulse jet mixed process vessel were performed using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The CFD-modelled process vessel consists of a 4.9-m- (16-ft-) diameter tank with a 2:1 semi-elliptical head, a single, 10-cm (4-in.) downward facing 60-degree conical nozzle, and a 0.61-m (24-in.) inside diameter PJM. The PJM is located at 70% of the vessel radius with the nozzle stand-off-distance 14 cm (6 in.) above the vessel head. The CFD modeled fluid velocity and wall shear stress can be used to estimate vessel waste-processing performance by comparison to available actual WFD system process data.Test data from the operation of jet mixer pumps in the 23-m (75-ft) diameter DSTs have demonstrated mobilization, solid particles in a sediment matrix were moved from their initial location, and suspension, mobilized solid particles were moved to a higher elevation in the vessel than their initial location, of waste solids. Jet mixer pumps were used in Hanford waste tank 241-AZ-101, and at least 95% of the 0.46-m (18-in.) deep sediment, with a shear strength of 1,500 to 4,200 Pa, was mobilized. Solids with a median particle size of 43 μm, 90th percentile of 94 μm, were suspended in tank 241-AZ-101 to at least 5.5 m (216 in.) above the vessel bottom. Analytical calculations for this jet mixer pump test were used to estimate the velocities and wall shear stress that mobilized and suspended the waste. These velocities and wall shear stresses provide design threshold criteria which are metrics for system performance that can be evaluated via testing. If the fluid motion in a specific pulse jet mixed process vessel meets or exceeds the fluid motion of the demonstrated performance in the WFD system, confidence is provided that that vessel will similarly mobilize and suspend those solids if they were within the WTP. The single PJM CFD-calculated jet velocity and wall shear stress compare favorably with the design threshold criterion estimated for the tank 241-AZ-101 process data. Therefore, for both mobilization and suspension, the performance data evaluated from the WFD system testing increases confidence that the performance of the pulse jet mixed process vessels will be sufficient to process that waste even if that waste is not fully characterized.Copyright

Instrumentation to Monitor Transient Developing Periodic Flow in Newtonian Slurries

This paper describes measurement techniques developed and applied to assess solids mobilization and mixing of Newtonian slurries that are subjected to transient, periodic, developing flows. Metrics to characterize mobilization and mixing are the just suspended velocity (UJS) and the cloud height (HC). Two ultrasonic instruments to characterize intermittent mixing of slurries were developed and deployed to measure related metrics: the thickness of the settled bed (used to determine mobilization) and the concentration within the cloud as a function of elevation [C(Z)]. A second method measured average density and monitored the concentration within the cloud using a continuous, circulating sample line with an inline Coriolis meter to measure bulk density. Testing focused on mixing vessels using intermittent jet mixers oriented vertically downward. Descriptions of the instruments and instrument performance are presented. These techniques were an effective approach to characterize mixing phenomena, determine mixing energy required to fully mobilize vessel contents, and to determine mixing times for process evaluation.Copyright

Instrumentation to Monitor Transient Periodic Developing Flow in Non-Newtonian Slurries

Staff at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have conducted mixing and mobilization experiments with non-Newtonian slurries that exhibit Bingham plastic and shear thinning behavior and shear strength. This paper describes measurement techniques applied to identify the interface between flowing and stationary regions of non-Newtonian slurries that are subjected to transient, periodic, developing flows. Techniques were developed to identify the boundary between the flowing and stationary regions, time to mix, characteristic velocities of the flow field produced by the symmetrically spaced nozzles, and the velocity of the upwell formed in the center of the tank by the intersection of flow from four symmetrically spaced nozzles that impinge upon the tank floor. Descriptions of the instruments and instrument performance are presented. These techniques were an effective approach to characterize mixing phenomena, determine mixing energy required to fully mobilize vessel contents and to determine mixing times for process evaluation.

Non-Newtonian Fluid Cavern and Newtonian Cloud Height Tests to Characterize Pulse Jet Mixer Operation

Pulse jet mixing systems are being developed for use in the Waste Treatment Plant in Washington State. To assist with system development, scaled tests were conducted to obtain experimental measurements of the cloud height for Newtonian slurries and cavern heights for a Non-Newtonian yield stress material. The measurements were required to assess the effective mixing and material mobilization produced during pulse jet mixer operation. The cloud height measurements were obtained for a single steady-state jet directed downward in a spherical-bottom tank. The cloud tests used glass beads in water to evaluate the height of the suspended slurry as a function of jet velocity. Cloud testing revealed that the glass bead material was suspended in the tank quickly and developed a distinctive height for each combination of flow rate and particulate size tested. The solids loading had minimal impact on the cloud height for a given particle size. During all cloud tests, the surface of the tank remained relatively calm, indicating that the slurry was dissipating the mixing energy of the relatively high velocity jet. Cavern tests were conducted to obtain experimental data of non-Newtonian fluid mixing for fluid properties similar to those of certain tank wastes. A transparent material that exhibited a yield stress and shear thinning behavior was used to obtain measurements of steady-state cavern heights as a function of jet velocity. For the non-Newtonian fluid cavern tests, distinct cavern volumes were readily developed for the four velocities tested. A linear relationship was observed to exist between cavern height and nozzle velocity. Since the experimental work detailed in this paper was completed, additional scaled tests have been conducted with pneumatic drive systems and direct drive systems similar to that described for this effort. Data from both types of measurements are shown to be linear; however, effects from the reciprocating drive systems that are not yet incorporated into models may be affecting the ability to collapse this data independent of scale. It is recommended that future efforts to assess performance of PJM operations using scaled tests consider employing direct drive systems to aid in evaluating scaling trends. A test system can be configured to allow testing at both reciprocating and direct drive conditions; thereby allowing direct comparison between them.Copyright

Air Sparging for Mixing Non-Newtonian Slurries

The mechanics of air sparger systems have been primarily investigated for aqueous-based Newtonian fluids. Tilton et al. (1982) [1] describes the fluid mechanics of air sparging systems in non-Newtonian fluids as having two primary flow regions. A center region surrounding the sparger, referred to as the region of bubbles (ROB), contains upward flow due to the buoyant driving force of the rising bubbles. In an annular region, outside the ROB, referred to as the zone of influence (ZOI), the fluid flow is reversed and is opposed to the direction of bubble rise. Outside the ZOI the fluid is unaffected by the air sparger system. The flow regime in the ROB is often turbulent, and the flow regime in the ZOI is laminar; the flow regime outside the ZOI is quiescent. Tests conducted with shear thinning non-Newtonian fluid in a 34-in. diameter tank showed that the ROB forms an approximately inverted cone that is the envelop of the bubble trajectories. The depth to which the air bubbles reach below the sparger nozzle is a linear function of the air-flow rate. The recirculation time through the ZOI was found to vary proportionally with the inverse square of the sparging air-flow rate. Visual observations of the ROB were made in both water and Carbopol®. The bubbles released from the sparge tube in Carbopol® were larger than those in water.© 2010 ASME

Material Balance Assessment for Double-Shell Tank Waste Pipeline Transfer

PNNL developed a material balance assessment methodology based on conservation of mass for detecting leaks and mis-routings in pipeline transfer of double-shell tank waste at Hanford. The main factors causing uncertainty in these transfers are variable property and tank conditions of density, existence of crust, and surface disturbance due to mixer pump operation during the waste transfer. The methodology was applied to three waste transfers from Tanks AN-105 and AZ-102.