The Effects of the Capsule Density Uniformity on the Behavior of Cylindrical Capsules Transported through a Pipiline

This paper presents the results of a study conducted to improve the understanding of the characteristics of cylindrical capsule flow in a pipeline by taking into account of the effect of capsule density uniformity. The effect fo capsule density variation in the axial direction was studied both experimentally and analytically. The experiments were conducted in a 190mm diameter straight pipe 17m long. The velocity, gap and tilt of capsules were measured under various conditions. In order to interpret the data on various capsule density conditions, the stability index given in the dimensionless number was introduced. The motion of capsules in pipelines is strongly affected by the stability of the capsules characterized by the statility index. The experiments conducted proved that the stability index is a vaild criterion for explaining and correlating data on the capsule motion and the capsule denisity uniformity.