Slurry Pipeline Principles Training in Perth: What Delegates Learned & What to Expect in Future Courses

Paterson & Cooke Australia held its first Pipeline Principles & Applications Course in Perth on the 4th and 5th of November 2024. The course offered delegates a comprehensive introduction to various types of slurries and slurry pipeline systems, and highlighted how these affect the design considerations.

The course was presented by some of our senior staff from the Perth office, including:

  • Paul Brittain, Engineering Manager
  • Alan Rosewall, Principal Engineer
  • René Nsanzubuhoro, Project Engineer

Course Content Overview

The slurry pipeline course covers, among other topics:

  • Water pipeline flow basics, providing an overview of the fundamentals of hydraulic design and going through a worked example design of a simple system
  • Pump selection considerations, discussing the various pump types available and where they are typically used in slurry systems, as well as the interaction between the pumps and the pipeline system
  • An introduction to slurry, including the major differences between settling, non-settling and mixed regime slurries and how this affects the design of pumping systems
  • Worked examples to demonstrate the process for a simple coarse and non-settling slurry system
  • An overview of steady-state and transient design of slurry system
  • Typical laboratory test work required for pipeline design
  • Wear and material selection for slurry systems
  • Slurry pipeline operation, maintenance and management thoughts from the designer’s perspective
Slurry Pipeline Course in Perth

Laboratory Demonstrations

Our Perth office is home to an onsite testing laboratory, which is part of our global network of testing facilities. This allows us to perform critical testing and conduct extensive analysis on the materials we process. As part of the course, we spent a few hours in the laboratory demonstrating the principles taught in the course and showing how some of the slurry testing is conducted.

The flow loop demonstration unit is used to illustrate hydraulic principles such as hydraulic grade lines (HGLs), head and pressure relationships, slack flow and choking. An artificial coarse slurry is then introduced into the loop to demonstrate some of the slurry principles such as settling velocity, settled beds, plugging and the effects of different pipeline gradients. This gives delegates a chance to look inside the pipelines that many of them have been working with for decades but have never actually seen what’s happening inside.

Other demonstrations included:

  • Rheological testing and how simple Boger slump tests can be utilised on site to estimate the yield stress of a slurry
  • Static and dynamic thickening testing to size thickeners or optimise flocculant selection and dosages
  • Vacuum filtration to further dewater a slurry
Slurry Laboratory Test

What Delegates Can Expect to Learn

Our aim for the 2-day course is to have delegates leave with a fundamental understanding of:

  • Pipeline flow principles
  • The interaction between pumps and pipeline systems
  • The various types of slurry and how they behave differently and require different design approaches
  • How Paterson & Cooke recommends approaching a slurry system design
  • Where to start looking if a system is not operating as intended

Building a strong network is one of our primary goals for our courses, and the course provides an opportunity to make some valuable connections with fellow delegates.

What Our Delegates Had to Say

We would like to say a special thanks to our first group of delegates on the Perth course, who had the below to say about the course:

  • “Top quality technical notes/info and experiences.”
  • “Good pacing & ability to cover topics without getting too bogged down.”
  • “Excellent presentation and presenters. They made it easy to understand the topics presented.”
  • “Two days is excellent for my intention: to gain insights into pipelines and pump systems for TSFs.”
  • “Thank you for generously sharing the information. The lecturers are quite resourceful and knowledgeable and professional.”
  • “The course provided a good balance of technical and practical content.”

Paterson & Cooke is committed to sharing our specialist knowledge and skills by hosting various annual courses.

Visit our Courses & Training Page to view our upcoming courses.

Find out more about our experience in designing slurry pipeline systems.