Numerical Study of Resistance Loss and Erosive Wear during Pipe Transport of Paste Slurry

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The presented study is intended to evaluate the influence of mixture transportation parameters on pipeline resistance losses and erosive wear. The research topic is relevant, since the reliability of the pipeline provides the possibility and timely supply of backfill mixture into the goaf. The authors applied numerical simulation of the backfill mixture movement in the pipeline and an analytical regression model. These are proven and reliable research methods. The results showed high convergence.

The introduction is qualitatively written, and most importantly, a previously little-studied area of ​​research in this problem is highlighted. The article is well and well structured. New and important scientific results have been obtained.

However, after reading the study in detail, I had a few comments and recommendations solely to improve the quality of the article.

1. Add "transportation" to your keywords.

2. Check the subsection numbering in section 2.

3. Why in subsection 2.2 do the authors adopt this particular model? Give a brief explanation or provide relevant literature references.

4. Dear authors, please explain what pipeline diameter was adopted in the study and based on what considerations?

5. Dear authors, please explain why the simulation accepts a change in the particle size of 150, 1000, 2000 µm? Is it due to the different properties of using paste backfill in practice?

6. Link the value of material properties to practical or laboratory studies. The authors have identified average values? With what compositions such properties are achieved in practice? Also, the data may have been obtained by the authors or other scientists in the course of laboratory studies of the transportability properties of CPB. If so, please provide relevant references to previous work.

7. After subsection 3.2.2, I would advise to give practical recommendations based on the results obtained. What parameters should be striven for or adhered to in practice?

Author Response

Dear Reviewers,

Thank you for your comments on my paper. I appreciate the time you have taken to review my work and provide me with feedback. I have carefully considered your suggestions and have made the following revisions to my paper:

 

Point 1: Add "transportation" to your keywords.

Response 1: Thank you for your nice suggestion. Transport" has been added to the list of keywords. For more information, please see the revised manuscript.

 

Point 2：Check the subsection numbering in section 2.

Response 2: Thank you very much for your careful review. I apologize for these errors and have corrected the serial numbers in the paper.

 

Point 3：Why in subsection 2.2 do the authors adopt this particular model? Give a brief explanation or provide relevant literature references.

Response 3: Thank you very much for your suggestion, the E/CRC erosion model has been widely used by previous researchers to describe the erosion wear of particles on pipe walls with higher accuracy compared to other erosion models. We have added the reasons to the paper.

 

Point 4：Dear authors, please explain what pipeline diameter was adopted in the study and based on what considerations?

 

Response 4: Thank you very much for your suggestion. The model used for the numerical simulation in the paper is 100 mm, which can be calculated by its inner and outer radius at the bend. To describe the geometric model more clearly, we have added notes in the text and explained the reasons for this.

 

Point 5：Dear authors, please explain why the simulation accepts a change in the particle size of 150, 1000, 2000 µm? Is it due to the different properties of using paste backfill in practice?

 

Response 5: Thank you very much for your suggestion. Considering the actual filling process slurry due to different materials with different particle sizes, and the particle size is generally less than 2000um, so the choice of small particle size 150um, intermediate particle size 1000un, coarse particle size 2000um, in order to better explore the impact of different particle sizes.

 

Point 6：Link the value of material properties to practical or laboratory studies. The authors have identified average values? With what compositions such properties are achieved in practice? Also, the data may have been obtained by the authors or other scientists in the course of laboratory studies of the transportability properties of CPB. If so, please provide relevant references to previous work.

 

Response 6: Thank you very much for your detailed review! In this study, in order to analyze the characteristics of different particle sizes more conveniently and clearly, the average particle size was used as a proxy to investigate the influence of the factor of particle size on the slurry filling process. In addition, another point that needs to be explained is that due to the long experimental period and more complicated operation of industrial ring tubes, no relevant experiments were conducted in this paper, which will be studied in depth in the subsequent work. Thank you very much for your suggestion, we have added the relevant instructions after section 3.2.2, which can be found in the revised manuscript.

 

Point 7：After subsection 3.2.2, I would advise to give practical recommendations based on the results obtained. What parameters should be striven for or adhered to in practice?

 

Response 7: Thank you very much for your suggestion, we have added the relevant instructions after section 3.2.2, which can be found in the revised manuscript.

 

 

Most sincerely,

Daoling Wang (on behalf of all co-authors)

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors presented a Numerical study of resistance loss and erosive wear during pipe transport of paste slurry

The introduction is relatively short and may be extended.

The novelty of the paper is to be clearly stated.

The solved governing equations are to be presented.

Have you considered a laminar or turbulent regime? What is the considered range for Reynolds number?

The boundary conditions are to be expressed mathematically.

A figure presenting the used mesh is to be added.

A grid sensitivity test is to be performed.

A validation/verification of the numerical model is to be performed.

What is the used convergence criterion?

what is the time step?

It will be interesting to present the 3D streamlines at the bend region.

The pipe presented in Figs 7 and 8, seems to be different from that presented in Fig 1; to be explained.

The paper is to be checked for misprints and grammatical mistakes

 

The paper is to be checked for misprints and grammatical mistakes

 

Author Response

Dear reviewers
Thank you for your careful review, we have revised the manuscript according to your comments, which are given in the Appendix.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I carefully read the updated version of the article and the answers of the authors. Everything suits me as a reviewer.

And I recommend the article for publication.

I wish the authors continued success in their research

Sincerely,

Reviewer

Reviewer 2 Report

Accept in present form