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A slurry is a mixture of denser solids suspended in liquid, usually water. The most common use of slurry is as a means of transporting solids or separating minerals, the liquid being a carrier that is pumped on a device such as a
centrifugal pump Centrifugal pumps are used to transport fluids by the Energy transformation, conversion of rotational kinetic energy to the hydrodynamic energy of the fluid flow. The rotational energy typically comes from an engine or electric motor. They are ...
. The size of solid particles may vary from 1
micrometre The micrometre (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a uni ...
up to hundreds of
millimetres 330px, Different lengths as in respect of the electromagnetic spectrum, measured by the metre and its derived scales. The microwave is between 1 metre to 1 millimetre. The millimetre (American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, i ...
. The particles may settle below a certain transport velocity and the mixture can behave like a Newtonian or non-Newtonian fluid. Depending on the mixture, the slurry may be abrasive and/or corrosive.


Examples

Examples of slurries include: *Cement slurry, a mixture of
cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...
, water, and assorted dry and liquid additives used in the
petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...
and other industries *Soil/cement slurry, also called Controlled Low-Strength Material (CLSM), flowable fill, controlled density fill, flowable mortar, plastic soil-cement, K-Krete, and other names *A mixture of
thickening agent A thickening agent or thickener is a substance which can increase the viscosity of a liquid without substantially changing its other properties. Edible thickeners are commonly used to thicken sauces, soups, and puddings without altering their ...
, oxidizers, and water used to form a gel explosive *A mixture of pyroclastic material, rocky debris, and water produced in a
volcanic eruption A volcanic eruption occurs when material is expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure. Several types of volcanic eruptions have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often named after famous volcanoes where that type of behavior h ...
and known as a
lahar A lahar (, from ) is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of Pyroclastic rock, pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water. The material flows down from a volcano, typically along a valley, river valley. Lahars are o ...
*A mixture of
bentonite Bentonite ( ) is an Absorption (chemistry), absorbent swelling clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite (a type of smectite) which can either be Na-montmorillonite or Ca-montmorillonite. Na-montmorillonite has a considerably greater swelli ...
and water used to make
slurry wall A slurry wall is a civil engineering technique used to build reinforced concrete walls in areas of soft earth close to open water, or with a high groundwater table. This technique is typically used to build diaphragm (water-blocking) walls surro ...
s * Coal slurry, a mixture of coal waste and water, or crushed coal and water * Slip, a mixture of
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
and water used for joining, glazing and decoration of ceramics and pottery. * Slurry oil, the highest boiling fraction distilled from the effluent of an
FCC unit The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains ju ...
in an
oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial processes, industrial process Factory, plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refining, refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, Bitumen, asphalt base, ...
. It contains a large amount of catalyst, in form of sediments hence the denomination of slurry. *A mixture of wood pulp and water used to make
paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...
*Manure slurry, a mixture of animal waste, organic matter, and sometimes water often known simply as "slurry" in
agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...
use, used as
fertilizer A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...
after aging in a slurry pit * Meat slurry, a mixture of finely ground meat and water, centrifugally dewatered and used as a food ingredient. *An abrasive substance used in
chemical-mechanical polishing Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) (also called chemical mechanical planarization) is a process of smoothing surfaces with the combination of chemical and mechanical forces. It can be thought of as a wikt:hybrid, hybrid of chemical etching and f ...
*
Slurry ice Slurry ice is a phase changing refrigerant made up of millions of ice "micro-crystals" (typically 0.1 to 1 mm in diameter) formed and suspended within a solution of water and a freezing point depressant. Some compounds used in the field are sa ...
, a mixture of ice crystals, freezing point depressant, and water *A mixture of raw materials and water involved in the rawmill manufacture of
Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar (masonry), mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in th ...
*A bolus of chewed food mixed with
saliva Saliva (commonly referred as spit or drool) is an extracellular fluid produced and secreted by salivary glands in the mouth. In humans, saliva is around 99% water, plus electrolytes, mucus, white blood cells, epithelial cells (from which ...
*A mixture of epoxy glue and glass microspheres used as a filler compound around core materials in sandwich-structured composite airframes.


Calculations


Determining solids fraction

To determine the percent solids (or solids fraction) of a slurry from the density of the slurry, solids and liquidWills, B.A. and Napier-Munn, T.J, ''Wills' Mineral Processing Technology: an introduction to the practical aspects of ore treatment and mineral recovery, '', Seventh Edition (2006), Elsevier, Great Britain :\phi_=\frac where :\phi_ is the solids fraction of the slurry (state by mass) :\rho_ is the solids density :\rho_ is the slurry density :\rho_ is the liquid density In aqueous slurries, as is common in mineral processing, the specific gravity of the species is typically used, and since
specific gravity Relative density, also called specific gravity, is a dimensionless quantity defined as the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for solids and liquids is nea ...
of water is taken to be 1, this relation is typically written: :\phi_=\frac even though specific gravity with units tonnes/m3 (t/m3) is used instead of the SI density unit, kg/m3.


Liquid mass from mass fraction of solids

To determine the mass of liquid in a sample given the mass of solids and the mass fraction: By definition :\phi_=\frac therefore :M_=\frac and :M_+M_=\frac then :M_=\frac-M_ and therefore :M_=\fracM_ where :\phi_ is the solids fraction of the slurry :M_ is the mass or mass flow of solids in the sample or stream :M_ is the mass or mass flow of slurry in the sample or stream :M_ is the mass or mass flow of liquid in the sample or stream


Volumetric fraction from mass fraction

:\phi_=\frac Equivalently :\phi_=\frac and in a minerals processing context where the specific gravity of the liquid (water) is taken to be one: :\phi_=\frac So :\phi_=\frac and :\phi_=\frac Then combining with the first equation: :\phi_=\frac So :\phi_=\frac Then since :\phi_=\frac=1-\frac we conclude that :\phi_=\frac where :\phi_ is the solids fraction of the slurry on a ''volumetric'' basis :\phi_ is the solids fraction of the slurry on a ''mass'' basis :M_ is the mass or mass flow of solids in the sample or stream :M_ is the mass or mass flow of slurry in the sample or stream :M_ is the mass or mass flow of liquid in the sample or stream :SG_ is the bulk specific gravity of the solids


See also

* Grout * Slurry pipeline * Slurry transport *
Slurry wall A slurry wall is a civil engineering technique used to build reinforced concrete walls in areas of soft earth close to open water, or with a high groundwater table. This technique is typically used to build diaphragm (water-blocking) walls surro ...


References


External links

*Bonapace, A.C
A General Theory of the Hydraulic Transport of Solids in Full Suspension
* *Ming, G., Ruixiang, L., Fusheng, N., Liqun, X. (2007)
Hydraulic Transport of Coarse Gravel—A Laboratory Investigation Into Flow Resistance.
{{Authority control Environmental engineering Materials Fluid mechanics