Energy and Built Environment 5 (2024) 607–614

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Energy and Built Environment

journal homepage: http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/energy-and-built-environment/

Numerical study on critical flow velocity of ice slurry in the pipe of ice
source heat pump system
Tao Wu a, Na Zhu a,∗, Zhigao Hu b, Zhenyu Luo a, Pingfang Hu a, Fei Lei a
a
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China
b
Hubei Fengshen Purification Air Conditioning Equipment Engineering Company Limited, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: The traditional evaporator of water source heat pump system is easy to freeze when the water source temperature
Ice slurry is too low in winter. A novel ice source heat pump system is proposed, which can use low temperature surface
Ice packing fraction water to supply heat to buildings. One of the key problems for safe transportation is velocity range of ice slurry
Flow in pipeline
in ice outlet pipeline. In order to study the critical flow velocity of ice slurry in the pipe, an Euler model of
Critical velocity
horizontal straight pipe and 90° elbow pipe were established by Fluent software. The influence of five factors
on the critical flow velocity of two kinds of pipes, including initial ice packing fraction, ice particle size, pipe
diameter, length of straight pipe and radius curvature of elbow was studied. It found that the initial ice content
should be controlled from 10% to 15%. The inlet flow rate was 20% higher than the critical flow rate under the
most unfavorable condition. Ice particle size was less than 0.2 mm. The total length of ice discharge pipeline was
less than 50 m. Curvature radius of the bend should be met the minimum requirements of the specification of
the pipe used.

1. Introduction
Globally, fossil energy such as oil, coal and natural gas is still the
main energy source [1], resulting in serious environmental pollution.
Particulate pollutants, CO2 and SO2 produced by fossil energy combus-
tion are the main air pollutants, causing frequent respiratory diseases.
Among all diseases, the incidence rate and mortality of lung cancer have
increased the fastest, becoming one of the greatest threats to health [2].
Building energy consumption is the most important part of the global
total energy consumption, among which the energy consumption of air-
condition system accounts for 40% [3]. Heat pump is commonly used
energy-saving technology in the field of air-condition. It uses a small
amount of electricity to drive the heat transfer from low-temperature
heat source to high-temperature heat source. Water source heat pump
system is an effective energy saving technology, but the evaporator will
be frozen easily when the water temperature is below 0 °C in winter.
Large water consumption is also a limitation on popularization and ap-
plication [4]. Based on the theoretical research and engineering appli-
cation, a novel ice source heat pump technology that can extract the
latent heat of water for heating in winter was proposed. When the su-
percooled water phase transition occurs, glycol absorbs the latent heat
of the phase transition through the plate heat exchanger. And the glycol
would be transported to the evaporator of heat pump unit to provide the
heat for the ice source heat pump. It proved that the technology had the
∗ wall, and the melting under the condition of turbulent inlet appeared on
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: bezhuna@hust.edu.cn (N. Zhu).
great potential and applicability in energy saving in cold regions [5,6].
The key on the safe operation of the system is avoiding ice blockage in
the ice pipeline [7–9]. The flow velocity in the ice slurry pipe is higher
than the critical velocity, which can effectively prevent ice blockage.
A number of studies on multiphase flow in ice slurry pipe have been
conducted by researcher [10,11]. The resistance characteristics of ice
slurry fluid by using two-phase flow model has been widely studied.
The ice slurry fluid was regarded as a homogeneous fluid, and the cor-
responding velocity values of lower flow, transition flow and turbulence
with different ice packing fraction (IPF) were optimized the flow in the
ice slurry pipeline [12–14]. It was usually used the mixture of ethy-
lene glycol to prevent the danger of ice blockage in the evaporator of
the refrigeration system [15]. Rayhan et al. [16–19] studied the flow of
ethylene glycol ice slurry solution in horizontal pipeline through experi-
ments. The results showed that ice slurry was Newtonian fluid when the
IPF was less than 10%. When the IPF exceeded 15%, ice slurry turned
into non-Newtonian fluid. The pressure drops of pipeline increased sig-
nificantly with the increase of IPF and the flow velocity [20–22]. Onoko
et al. [23–26] studied the heat transfer of ethylene glycol ice slurry in the
horizontal heating tube and found that due to the melting of ice particle,
the heat transfer coefficient was higher than that of conventional fluid. It
was well known that the heat transfer coefficients are greatly increased
when ice fractions of 15 and more percent were employed [27–29]. Un-
der the condition of laminar flow inlet, the ice slurry conducted radial
heat through heat conduction. The melting only appeared near the tube
whole cross section [30,31]. Kumano et al. [32–34] conducted an exper-

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbenv.2023.05.002
Received 29 October 2022; Received in revised form 9 May 2023; Accepted 9 May 2023
Available online 13 May 2023
2666-1233/Copyright © 2023 Southwest Jiatong University. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communication Co. Ltd. This is an open access
article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
T. Wu, N. Zhu, Z. Hu et al. Energy and Built Environment 5 (2024) 607–614

Nomenclature

D pipe diameter (m)

d particle diameter (mm)
DN nominal diameter
F force (N)
g Gravity acceleration (m∕s2 )
IPF ice packing fraction
j diffusion flux (kg/m3 ·s)
m mass (kg)
p pressure (Pa)
v velocity (m/s)

Greek symbols
𝛼 volume fraction
𝜌 density (kg/m3 )
𝜆 bulk viscosity (kg/m·s)
𝜏 shear stress (Pa)
𝜇 dynamic viscosity (kg/m·s)
∇ Laplacian
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of ice particle accumulation.
Subscripts
l liquid phase
q phase index patterns was widely discussed. It might differ slightly from an author to
s solid phase another. There are three flow patterns of ice slurry in the flow process:
static bed (saltation), moving bed (saltation) and suspension flows, as it
usually classified homogeneous and heterogeneous flows together into
imental study on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of ethylene another category, named suspension flows [38]. Such a categorization
glycol ice slurry in the transition zone. It found that the pipeline fric- originally made for all type of solid-fluid suspensions was employed in
tion coefficient and heat transfer coefficient were constant in the low most research works on ice slurry flows [39–41]. When the maximum
IPF area, and stratification would occur in the high IPF area [35,36]. IPF is greater than 52%, the flow state of ice slurry changes from sus-
The literature focused on the fields of flow pattern, pressure charac- pended flow to moving bed, which is easy to cause pipeline ice block-
teristics and heat transfer characteristics in the ice slurry transportation age. The transformation speed of the two flow states corresponds to
pipeline. Most of the research based on ice slurries that mixed with other the critical velocity II. In order to fully ensure the safety of ice slurry
freeze inhibitors such as ethylene glycol. And the diameter of the ice transportation in the pipe, the final selection of critical velocity under
slurry transmission pipeline was generally less than 50 mm. However, different operation conditions is the larger of the two critical velocity
in practical applications (eg. the ice source heat pump,), pure ice slurry values.
was often used. How to ensure the transportation of pure ice slurry in
large-diameter pipelines was necessary. In this paper, the critical ve-
3. Numerical simulation
locity and flow pattern change of pure water ice slurry in large pipe
diameter used in ice source heat pump system were studied. The results
Due to the temperature difference between the pipe wall and the ice
can be applied in practical engineering design.
slurry, the ice slurry exchanges heat with the pipe wall in the process of
flowing. The melting of ice particle affects the flow characteristics of ice
2. Methodology
particle, which is more complex than single-phase flow and multiphase
flow without mass exchange. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a
Due to the density difference between ice and water, ice particle
common method to study multiphase flow. Due to the complex flow in
floats up with the flow process under the action of buoyancy, forming
the ice slurry pipe under non-adiabatic conditions, the Euler model is
uneven ice slurry. Ice blockage occurs easily when the IPF is too high or
relatively perfect in the simulation of multiphase flow in the pipeline,
the velocity is too slow. In this paper, the critical velocity is used for the
which can describe the flow characteristics of multiphase flow accu-
quantification for transportation safety of ice slurry, aiming to provide
rately. Therefore, the Euler model is selected for numerical simulation
an accurate description of transportation safety of ice slurry.
in this paper.
Critical velocity is an important standard to evaluate the safety of
ice slurry transportation, which refers to the minimum velocity of ice
slurry flowing in the pipe without ice blockage. It depends on several 3.1. Mathematical model
parameters, such as the ice crystal size, the pipe diameter and the pipe
length [37]. There are two kinds of basis to judge whether ice blockage The Euler model [41,42] describes multiphase flow as a continuous
occurs in the pipe: (1) the minimum velocity of ice particles in the pipe is body and establishes the corresponding Navier-Stokes equation for each
0 m/s, corresponding to the critical velocity I (CVI); (2) The maximum component, which meets the conservation of mass, momentum and en-
IPF in the pipeline is greater than 52%, corresponding to the critical ergy respectively. The volume of each component is given by Eq (1).
velocity II(CVII) [38]. The spatial distribution of ice particles is shown
in Fig 1. Vq = ∫ 𝛼𝑞 d𝑉 (1)
The first judgment basis is easy to understand. When the minimum
Where 𝛼𝑞 is the volume fraction of the q phase, and the total volume
velocity of ice particles in the pipeline is 0 m/s, ice particle will stay and
fraction of each phase is 1, shown in Eq (2).
gather in the pipeline to form ice blockage. The second judgment basis is ∑
determined according to the different accumulation modes of particles 𝛼𝑞 = 1 (2)
in three-dimensional space. The way to characterize the different flow

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T. Wu, N. Zhu, Z. Hu et al. Energy and Built Environment 5 (2024) 607–614

The continuity equation of the q phase is given by Eq (3).

𝑛
𝜕( ) ( ) ∑ ( )
𝛼𝑞 𝜌𝑞 + ∇ 𝛼𝑞 𝜌𝑞 𝑣⃗𝑞 = 𝑚̇ 𝑝𝑞 − − 𝑚̇ 𝑞𝑝 +𝑆𝑞 (3)
𝜕𝑡 𝑝=1

Where, 𝑣⃗𝑞 is the velocity of the q phase, m/s; 𝑚̇ 𝑝𝑞 is the mass transfer rate
from p phase to q phase, kg/(m3 ·s); 𝑚̇ 𝑞𝑝 is the mass transfer rate from q
phase to p phase, kg/(m3 ·s); 𝑆𝑞 is the mass source term, kg/(m3 ·s).
The momentum equation of the liquid phase is given by Eq (4)-(5)
[43,34].

𝜕( ) ( )
𝛼 𝜌 𝑣⃗ + ∇ 𝛼𝑙 𝜌𝑙 𝑣⃗𝑙 𝑣⃗𝑙 = −𝛼𝑙 ∇𝑝 + ∇ ⋅ 𝜏 𝑙 + 𝛼𝑙 𝜌𝑙 𝑔⃗
𝜕𝑡 𝑙 𝑙 𝑙
[ ( ) ]
+ 𝐾𝑠𝑙 𝑣⃗𝑠 − 𝑣⃗𝑙 + 𝑣⃗𝑠𝑙 𝑚̇ 𝑠𝑙 − − 𝑣⃗𝑙𝑠 𝑚̇ 𝑙𝑠
( )
+ 𝐹⃗𝑙 + 𝐹⃗𝑙𝑖𝑓 𝑡,𝑙 + 𝐹⃗𝑤𝑙,𝑙 + 𝐹⃗𝑣𝑚,𝑙 + 𝐹⃗𝑡𝑑,𝑙 (4)

( ) ( )
2
𝜏 𝑙 = 𝛼𝑙 𝜇𝑙 ∇𝑣⃗𝑙 + ∇𝑣⃗𝑇𝑙 + 𝛼𝑙 𝜆𝑙 − − 𝜇𝑙 ∇ ⋅ 𝑣⃗𝑙 𝐼 (5)
3

Where 𝜏 𝑙 is strain tensor in the liquid phase, 𝜇𝑙 is the dynamic vis-
cosity of liquid phase, kg/(m·s); 𝜆𝑙 is the volume viscosity of liquid
phase, kg/(m·s); 𝐾𝑠𝑙 is the momentum exchange coefficient between
solid and liquid phases, kg/m2 ; 𝐹⃗𝑙 is the external volume force, 𝐹⃗𝑙𝑖𝑓 𝑡,𝑙 is
the buoyancy, 𝐹⃗𝑤𝑙,𝑙 is the wall lubrication force, 𝐹⃗𝑣𝑚,𝑙 is the virtual mass
force, 𝐹⃗𝑡𝑑,𝑙 is the turbulent diffusion force, kg/(m2 ·s2 );∇𝑝 is the common
pressure of all phases, pa; 𝑣⃗𝑙𝑠 is the relative velocity between phases,
m/s; 𝐼 represents the unit vector.
The momentum conservation equation of particle phase is given by
Eq (6).
𝜕( ) ( ) hydraulic radius were set. The temperature of water and ice crystal at
𝛼 𝜌 𝑣⃗ + ∇ 𝛼𝑠 𝜌𝑠 𝑣⃗𝑠 𝑣⃗𝑠 = − − 𝛼𝑠 ∇𝑝 + ∇ ⋅ 𝜏 𝑠 + 𝛼𝑠 𝜌𝑠 𝑔⃗ − − ∇𝑃𝑠
𝜕𝑡 𝑠 𝑠 𝑠
[ ( ) ]
+ 𝐾𝑙𝑠 𝑣⃗𝑙 − −⃖⃖𝑣⃗𝑠 + ⃖⃖𝑣⃗𝑙𝑠 𝑚̇ 𝑙𝑠 − − 𝑣⃗𝑠𝑙 𝑚̇ 𝑠𝑙
+(𝐹⃗𝑠 + ⃖⃖⃖𝐹⃗𝑣𝑚,𝑠 + 𝐹⃗𝑙𝑖𝑓 𝑡,𝑠 + 𝐹⃗𝑡𝑑,𝑠 ) (6)
Where, 𝑃𝑠 is the solid phase pressure, pa; 𝜏 𝑠 is the stress tensor of solid
particles, Pa.
The energy conservation equation of q is given by Eq (7).
( ( )) ( ( ))
𝜕 𝜕
𝛼𝑞 𝜌𝑞 𝑒𝑞 + 𝑣⃗2𝑞 ∕2 + ∇⋅ 𝛼𝑞 𝜌𝑞 𝑣⃗𝑞 ℎ𝑞 + 𝑣⃗2𝑞 ∕2
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡
( )
= ∇ ⋅ 𝛼𝑞 𝑘𝑒𝑓 𝑓 ,𝑞 ∇𝑇𝑞 − ℎ𝑞 𝑗⃗𝑞 + 𝜏𝑒𝑓 𝑓 ,𝑞 ⋅ 𝑣⃗𝑞
𝑛
∑ 𝜕𝛼𝑞
+ (𝑄𝑝𝑞 + 𝑚̇ 𝑝𝑞 ℎ𝑝𝑞 − − 𝑚̇ 𝑞𝑝 ℎ𝑞𝑝 ) + 𝑝 + 𝑆𝑞 (7)
𝑝=1
𝜕𝑡
Where, 𝑘𝑒𝑓 𝑓 ,𝑞 is the effective thermal conductivity, W/(m·K); 𝑆𝑞 is the
heat source term of q phase, W/(m3 ·s); 𝑄𝑝𝑞 is the heat exchange intensity
between p phase and q phase, W/(m3 ·s); The heat exchange between
phases follows the local equilibrium condition 𝑄𝑝𝑞 = −𝑄𝑞𝑝 and 𝑄𝑞𝑞 =
0. ℎ𝑝𝑞 is the latent heat of phase transformation, J/kg; ℎ𝑞 is the enthalpy
of q phase, J/kg; 𝑗⃗𝑞 is the diffusion flux of q phase, kg/(m3 ·s).
3.2. Model boundary
The flow modes were all turbulence as the Reynolds number of all
conditions exceeded 10,000 in this paper. Compared with single-phase
flow, a more accurate turbulence model was necessary due to the com-
plex and varied flow patterns of ice slurry multiphase flow. The RNG
k − ε model was adopted in this paper [44]. And in the flow process,
and the ice crystal particles would melt and exchange heat and mass
with liquid water due to the temperature difference between liquid wa-
ter and ice crystal particles during the flow process. The interphase heat
and mass transfer model adopted [45,46].
In this paper, the Phase-Coupled SIMPlE method was selected and the
standard wall function was used to simulate the ice slurry flow near the
Fig. 2. Verification of critical velocity.
wall. No slip boundary was used for water, and Johnson-Jackson bound-
ary condition was used for ice crystal particles [45]. In this model, wall
reflection coefficient and particle-wall recovery coefficient were intro-
duced to calculate momentum loss of particles caused by collision. The
convergence criteria for all variables were set at 10–4 , and the direc-
tion of gravity was negative along the Y-axis. Particle-particle impact
recovery coefficient, particle-wall impact recovery coefficient and wall
reflection coefficient were 0.9, 0.9 and 0.015, respectively. The inlet
boundary was set as the velocity inlet, and the turbulence intensity and
the inlet interface was set at 273.15 K, the wall surface of the pipe is
set at constant temperature, the outlet interface of the ice outlet is set
at pressure outlet, and the back pressure was set at one standard at-
mosphere. The properties of the ice crystal particle were shown in the
Table 1.
3.3. Model validation
Tian et al. [38,42] conducted a series of studies on the critical ve-
locity of ice slurry flow in the pipeline. Fig. 2 showed the comparison
between the simulation results in this paper and the data in reference
[38,47]. The critical velocity here referred to the CV II. The pipe di-
ameter was DN50, ethanol solution concentration was 10% and the ice
particle size was 0.3 mm. According to the Fig. 2, absolute error between
the model simulation results and the data in the literature was within ±
0.01 m/s, and the relative error was within ± 10%.
Pressure drop was an important characteristic of ice slurry flow in
the pipe. Wang et al. [48] measured the pressure drop of 18% ethanol ice
slurry solution in a horizontal straight pipe with a diameter of 23 mm
and a length of 5 m through experiments, and summarized the varia-
tion law of pressure drop with velocity. Fig. 3 showed the comparison
between the simulation data in this paper and the experimental test data
in reference [48]. The absolute error was within ± 30 Pa/m and the rel-
ative error was within ± 10%. Therefore, the numerical model used in
this paper can predict the pressure drop of ice slurry flow in the pipe
accurately. The above two verification experiments proved that the nu-
merical model used in this paper was reliable.
4. Simulation results
4.1. Effect of initial IPF on critical velocity
The initial IPF was an important factor affecting the safe transporta-
tion of ice slurry. When the IPF was high, it was easy to occur ice block-
age in pipeline. The increase of initial IPF increased the number of ice

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Table 1
Properties of ice crystal particles.

Material Density 𝜌/(kg·m–3 ) Dynamic viscosity 𝜇/(Pa·s) Diameter d/(mm)

Ice crystal particle 915 1.72 × 10–5 0.1, 0.125, 0.15, 0.175, 0.2

Fig. 3. Verification of pipeline pressure drop. Fig. 5. Effect of initial IPF on critical velocity of 90° elbow.

The above phenomena were analyzed as follows: when the inlet ve-
particles in the tube and improved the collision probability between par-
locity was constant, the number of ice particles floating upward in the
ticles and tube. The initial IPF selected in this paper ranged from 2% to
pipeline increased with the initial IPF increased during the flow process,
20%, the diameter of horizontal straight pipe and 90° elbow is 0.1 m,
and the ice particles finally gathered above the pipeline, while the max-
and the ice particle size was 0.15 mm. The influence of initial IPF on
imum IPF in the pipeline increased. Increasing the inlet velocity could
the critical velocity of the two pipelines was shown in Figs. 4 and 5.
shorten the time for ice particles to flow through the pipeline, increased
According to Figs. 4 and 5, in the range of 2% to 20% of the ini-
the intensity of turbulent flow, and promoted the uniform distribution
tial IPF, the critical velocity of horizontal straight pipe and 90° elbow
of ice particles in the pipeline. Therefore, the CV II increased with the
showed a downward trend with the increase of the initial IPF. The CVII
increase of initial IPF.
increased with the increase of initial IPF. When the initial IPF was less
The increase of initial IPF will increase the collision frequency be-
than 18%, the CVI of the two pipelines were higher than the critical ve-
tween ice particles and the pipeline, and the average density of ice slurry
locity two. When the initial IPF was greater than 18%, the CVII of the
will decrease, as shown in Fig. 6. The IPF increased from 2% to 20%,
two pipelines exceed the CVI. When the initial IPF increased from 2%
and the average density of ice slurry decreased from 998.2 kg/m3 to
to 20%, for the CVI, the decrease amplitude of the horizontal straight
983.32 kg/m3 .
pipe was 0.09 m/s and that of the 90° elbow was 0.07 m/s. For CVII, the
Fig. 7 showed that the pressure drop variation of horizontal straight
increase of horizontal straight pipe data was 0.12 m/s, and the increase
pipe and 90° elbow decreased with the increase of IPF under the condi-
of 90° elbow data was 0.05 m/s.
tions of pipe diameter D = 0.1 m, ice particle size ds =0.15 mm and inlet

Fig. 4. Effect of initial IPF on critical velocity of horizontal straight pipe. Fig. 6. Variation of ice slurry density with IPF.

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Fig. 7. Pressure drop variation of horizontal straight pipe and 90° elbow with
IPF (D = 0.1 m, ds = 0.15 mm, v = 0.5 m/s).

flow velocity v = 0.5 m/s. The maximum IPF in the pipe under all op-
eration conditions was less than 52% in Fig. 7. According to Fig. 7, the
pressure drop of the pipeline decreased with the increase of initial IPF,
and the decrease amplitude decreased gradually. It can be inferred that
when there was no moving bed in the pipeline, the increased resistance
of particle collision was less than that of the decrease of fluid density.
Therefore, the critical velocity decreased with the increase of initial IPF.
According to the simulation data in this research, the CVI was gen-
erally higher than the CVII under the studied working conditions in the
range of 15% to 18% of the initial IPF. When the initial IPF was greater
than 15%, the CVII was higher than the CVI under some working condi-
tions. Since the two critical velocities changed little in the range of 15%
to 18% of the initial IPF, they were unified standards. When the initial
IPF was less than 15%, the CV was taken as CVI, and when the initial
IPF was greater than 15%, the CV was taken as CVII.

4.2. Effect of ice particle size on critical velocity

Ice particle size is one of the important factors affecting the safe
transportation of ice particle. Generally, when the ice particle size is
small, the fluidity is good and the transportation of ice slurry is safe.
Under the existing ice making process, the ice particle size ranges from
0.1 to 0.2 mm [5,6]. Ice particle sizes ranges from 0.1 to 0.2 mm in this
research.
Fig. 8 showed the effect of ice particle size on the critical velocity
of horizontal straight pipe. It found that both CVI and CVII increased
with the increase of ice particle size. The growth trend of CVI under
different initial IPF was roughly the same. The growth rate of CVII was
faster under higher initial IPF condition. When the ice particle size in-
creased from 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm, the increase of CVI ranged from 0.20
to 0.60 m/s, which was lower than that of CVII ranged from 0.06 to
0.6 m/s. It indicated that the effect of ice particle size change on CVI of
horizontal straight pipe was less than that of CVII.
Fig. 9 showed the effect of ice particle size on the critical velocity of
90° elbow. Both CVI and CVII increased significantly with the increase of
ice particle size, the increase of CVI ranged from 0.21 to 0.61 m/s, which
was equivalent to the increase of CVII ranged from 0.16 to 0.65 m/s. It
indicated that the change of ice particle size had nearly the same effect
on the two critical velocities of 90° elbow. Compared Fig. 7 with Fig. 8,
it found that the effect of ice particle size growth on the critical velocity
of horizontal straight pipe was more obvious than that of 90° elbow.
When the ice particle size was small, the buoyancy of a single ice
particle in the flow process decreased, and the driving force to move
to the upper part of the pipeline decreased. The mass and inertia of
Fig. 8. Effect of ice particle size on critical velocity of horizontal straight pipe
(𝐷 = 0.1m).
small ice particles were also low, therefore, the small ice particles can
disperse in the flow field easily and reduce the probability of forming
moving bed in the tube. The change of ice particle size had the most
significant impact on the critical velocity. Reducing the ice particle size
was conducive to the safety of ice slurry transportation in the pipeline
and reduce the critical velocity.
4.3. Effect of pipe length on critical velocity of horizontal straight pipe
The longer the length of ice slurry in the pipeline, the higher the
probability of ice slurry blockage in the pipeline. Five pipe lengths of
3 m, 4 m, 5 m, 6 m and 7 m were selected for research in this study.
Fig. 10a and Fig. 10b showed the effect of pipe length on the critical
velocity of horizontal straight pipe.
According to the Fig. 10, the two critical velocities showed a linear
growth trend with the increase of pipe length. The CVI increased more
significant under the condition of lower initial IPF. When the pipe length
increased from 3 m to 7 m, the velocity increased from 0.31 to 0.52 m/s.
The performance of CVII was on the contrary. Under the condition of
higher initial IPF, the increase was obviously. with an increase of 0.24 to
0.51 m/s. It indicated that the change of straight pipe length had greater

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Fig. 9. Effect of ice particle size on critical velocity of 90° elbow (𝐷 = 0.1m).
impact on CVI under lower initial IPF and more significant on CVII under
higher initial IPF. The increase of pipe length had a strong impact on
the two critical velocities, which prolonged the flow time of ice particles
in the pipeline and increase the probability of aggregation in the upper
part of the pipeline. It was not conducive to the safe transportation of
ice slurry in the pipeline. Therefore, the length of ice discharge pipeline
should be reduced as much as possible in the process of engineering
design and construction.
4.4. Influence of curvature radius on critical velocity of 90° elbow
The curvature radius of 90° elbow will affect the flow direction of
ice slurry in the pipe and enhance the disturbance, which will have a
certain impact on the critical velocity of ice slurry safe transportation. D
is the pipe diameter. In this study, 1D, 2D, 3D, 4D and 5D of curvature
radius were selected for research.
Fig. 11 showed the influence of curvature radius on the critical ve-
locity of 90° elbow. The critical velocity decreased with the increase of
curvature radius, especially at low initial IPF condition. When curva-
ture radius increased from 1D to 5D, the critical velocity decreased in
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Fig. 10. Effect of pipe length on critical velocity of horizontal straight pipe (ds
= 0.15mm).
the range of 0.015 to 0.03 m/s. The CVII decreased with the increase
of curvature radius, and the decrease ranged from 0.015 to 0.02 m/s.
There was no significant difference in the decrease range under different
IPF. The influence of elbow curvature radius on CVI was slightly greater
than that on CVII, and the overall influence was weak.
The increase of curvature radius of the elbow enhanced the distur-
bance in the pipe, and drived the ice particles to collide with the pipe
wall. It changed the flow direction and reduced the aggregation degree
of ice particle above the pipe, then reduced the critical velocity of ice
slurry flow in the pipe. Because the length of the elbow accounted for
a small proportion of the total length of the pipeline, and the change
of curvature radius of the elbow had a weak impact on the two critical
velocities.
4.5. Results and discussion
Based on the simulation results in this study, some suggestions for
the actual design and operation of ice source heat pump system can be
given as follows.
The initial IPF was recommended to be controlled between 10% and
15%. When the initial IPF was less than 15%, the critical velocity I was
T. Wu, N. Zhu, Z. Hu et al.
Fig. 11. Effect of radius of curvature on critical velocity of 90° elbow (ds =
0.15mm).
greater than the critical velocity II under most working conditions in
this paper. The critical velocity decreased with the increase of the initial
IPF. Increased the initial IPF was conducive to the safety of ice slurry
transportation in the pipe. When the initial IPF was greater than 18%,
the CVII was greater than the CVI under some working conditions. The
CV Increased with the increase of the initial IPF, reduced the safety of
ice slurry transportation. The initial IPF was in the range of 10% to 15%,
and the critical velocity of ice slurry transportation in the pipe changed
little with the increase of initial IPF.
The inlet velocity was higher than the critical velocity under the most
unfavorable working conditions, leaving a safety threshold of 20%. Gen-
erally, the most unfavorable working condition would occur when the
water supply temperature of the water source was the lowest. When
the inlet velocity rose to a higher level, the effect of continuously in-
creasing the inlet velocity on improving the transportation safety of ice
slurry in the pipe continued to decrease. Therefore, ensuring that the
inlet velocity was higher than the critical velocity under the most unfa-
vorable working conditions and leaving a safety threshold of 20%, that
can ensure the stable operation of the ice source heat pump system in
the heating season.
613
Energy and Built Environment 5 (2024) 607–614
Try to reduce the ice particle size, which was recommended to be less
than 0.2 mm. The two critical velocities decreased significantly with the
decrease of ice particle size, and the distribution of IPF in the pipeline
was more uniform. It indicated that the smaller the ice particle was, the
stronger the fluidity was. It was conducive to the safety of ice slurry
transportation in the pipeline.
The total length of the ice discharge pipeline was recommended to
be less than 50 m, so as to minimize the length of the ice discharge
pipeline and optimize the location of the machine room. The critical
velocity increased nearly linearly with the increase of pipe length. The
longer the pipeline, the higher the heat loss of the water supply at the
source side during transportation. The water supply pipe might have the
problem of icing in winter, so reliable thermal insulation measures were
needed. Therefore, when the ice source heat pump system was applied,
the distance between the system location and the water intake should
be shorten under the safe operation conditions.
The curvature radius of the elbow can meet the minimum indus-
try specification requirements of the pipe used. The critical velocity
decreased with the increase of the curvature radius of the elbow, but
the decrease was not significant and had little impact on the safety of
ice slurry transportation. When the curvature radius of the elbow was
large, it will occupy more space. It was not conducive to the overall in-
stallation of equipment in the machine room. Therefore, the selection
of elbow curvature radius was needed to be comprehensively consid-
ered in combination with pipe type, industry standard, pipe design and
installation and other factors, which can be higher than the minimum
industry specification requirements of the used pipe.
Elbows or other parts should be added to enhance the disturbance in
the pipeline in the middle of the ice outlet pipeline. When the pipeline
was long, the number of disturbed parts was increased appropriately.
Under the same conditions, the two critical velocities of 90° elbow were
always lower than that of horizontal straight pipe. The existence of the
elbow increased the disturbance and promoted the uniform distribution
of ice particle in the pipeline. Therefore, it was recommended to add
elbows or other components that can increase disturbance in the middle
of the ice discharge pipeline. When the pipeline was long, the number
of disturbed components should be increased appropriately.
5. Conclusions
According to the characteristics of multiphase flow in ice slurry pipe,
the Euler two fluid multiphase flow model in ice pipe was established
by Fluent software. The effects of initial IPF, ice particle size, straight
pipe length and elbow curvature radius on the critical flow velocity of
the two pipes were studied based on numerical model. The results were
as follows.
(1) The effect of ice particle size was the most significant, followed by
the initial IPF and the length of the straight pipe While the pipe
diameter and elbow curvature radius was not obvious.
(2) The two critical velocities increased with the increase of ice grain
size significantly. The CVI decreased with the increase of the initial
IPF and the CVII increased and decreased. The two critical velocities
increase nearly linearly with the increase of straight pipe length, and
the increase was roughly the same.
(3) Based on the simulation result, the rules should be obeyed in the
application of ice source heat pump system as well as other condi-
tions of ice slurry transportation. The initial ice content should be
controlled from 10% to 15%. The inlet flow rate was 20% higher
than the critical flow rate under the most unfavorable condition. Ice
particle size was less than 0.2 mm. The total length of ice discharge
pipeline was less than 50 m. Curvature radius of the bend should
be met the minimum requirements of the specification of the pipe
used. Disturbing parts such as elbows were recommended to add in
the middle of the pipeline.
T. Wu, N. Zhu, Z. Hu et al.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Tao Wu: Methodology, Software, Validation. Na Zhu: Conceptual-
ization, Writing – original draft, Project administration, Supervision.
Zhigao Hu: Writing – review & editing. Zhenyu Luo: Writing – review
& editing. Pingfang Hu: Investigation. Fei Lei: Investigation.
Acknowledgment
This work presented in this paper is financially supported by Hubei
Fengshen Purification air Conditioning Equipment Engineering Com-
pany Limited.
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