Optimization Design Of Long-distance Iron Ore Concentrate Transportation Pipeline

As the fifth largest transportation way, slurry transportation pipeline’s advantageis recognized more and more by many industries. With the development of direction ofits long-distance, high-lift and high concentrations, although in comparison with theconventional mode of transportation(car, train, etc.), it has incomparable advantages.But the corresponding investment cost also demands gigantic. In this paper, afteranalyzing the domestic and international long-distance iron ore concentrate slurrytransport design method, the deficiency of typical design method is realized. Thenthere is deep study on the long-distance iron ore concentrate transportation pipelineoptimization design program in this paper. It aims to reduce the total costs ofinvestment, improves design efficiency and accuracy, increases the economic andsocial benefits enterprises etc.First of all, this paper is based on the minimum discounted costs of the wholedesign period to improve the designed models. Combining with the two-phase slurrytransportation technology and theory, this paper determines the four design variables:inside diameter of pipeline, wall thickness of pipeline, amount of pumping stations andthe life of pumping stations. According to the conveying characteristics of the slurrytransportation, it does establish slurry hydraulic friction losses, transport velocity, thecharacteristic of pumping stations and pipelines parameters as constraints to ensure theintegrity of the design model.Then, through the analysis of the design variables and constraints, the model isdetermined as a nonlinear constrained optimization scheme with discrete variables. Inaddition to compared a variety of optimization methods, this paper chooses the geneticalgorithm as the ultimate method for solving the optimization problem. Based ondeeply analyzing the operating principles of genetic algorithms, the detailed solutionstep of the model is establishedAt last, taking one iron ore concentrate in China as example, this paper designs along-distance transportation pipeline, of which the algorithm program is using theMatlab 7.10 software to write. The optimization results show that the processingparameters and economic indexes met the tendency of the engineering design of slurrytransportation pipeline. Comparing with the the pipeline parameters of the traditionaldesign scheme, the results shows that the pipe diameter differed only 0.4 mm and thepipe thickness only 1.5 mm. According to the comparison with the investment cost ofother schemes, the optimal solution has economic differentials about 103%~170%. It isobserved that the optimization effect has significant difference. Therefore, theestablished model and the solving method in this paper are verified to be feasible,which can completely meet the requirements of initial stage engineering design.The optimal design method of long-distance iron ore concentrate transportationpipeline in this paper is the first time to apply intelligent algorithm into the engineeringdesign of slurry transportation pipeline. It can not only improve the security oftransportation technology, but also can be reasonable to reduce the cost of investment.Also, in combination with example, the specific calculation process is presented todescribe the model, and provides some reference directions for the design oflong-distance iron ore concentrate slurry pipeline transportation.