Study of the energy consumption of the piped vehicle hydraulic transportation

The piped vehicle hydraulic transportation is a new energy-saving and environmental-friendly technique for transporting materials. To optimize the technical parameters of the piped vehicle hydraulic transportation, the transporting energy consumption of the technique was studied by a combination of theoretical analysis and experiments. Experiments were conducted at six piped vehicles with the diameter–length ratios of 0.4, 0.6, 0.47, 0.7, 0.53, and 0.8, seven flow Reynolds numbers of 102,140, 132,413, 167,014, 200,534, 234,037, 267,556, and 299,993, two transporting loads of 1200 and 1500 g, and three pipe layout forms of straight pipe, flat bend pipe, and inclined bend pipe. The results showed that the total energy consumption of the piped vehicle hydraulic transportation increased with increasing flow Reynolds numbers and increasing mass of transporting materials. The total transporting energy consumption of a piped vehicle with the diameter–length ratio of 0.53 was the highest, and that of a piped vehicle with the diameter–length ratio of 0.47 was the lowest. The unit transporting energy consumption of a bend pipe was higher than that of a straight pipe. Meanwhile, the total energy consumption of the piped vehicle hydraulic transportation was analyzed by hydrodynamic theory. The calculation formula for the total energy consumption of the piped vehicle hydraulic transportation was obtained and validated experimentally. The maximum relative error did not exceed 8.07%, proving that the total energy consumption calculation formula of the piped vehicle hydraulic transportation was rational. By analyzing the transporting efficiency of piped vehicle hydraulic transportation under different influencing factors, the optimal transporting combination was the piped vehicle with the diameter–length ratio of z = 0.47 and the flow Reynolds number of Re = 200,534. The results of this study can provide a theoretical basis for optimizing the technical parameters of the piped vehicle hydraulic transportation.