| Coal Log Pipeline (CLP) refers to a new technology for the transportation of coal, which has been developing in the USA over the past several years, and is expected to be used on a commercial scale within the next few years. In a CLP system, coal is prepared in the form of circular cylinders, coal logs, so that the coal can be transported through an underground or overland pipeline. One of the major requirements in the CLP technology is to produce strong and durable coal logs, which can endure a long distance trip through water pipelines without breaking and with a minimum amount of weight loss. To reach this goal, research has taken place on several fabrication methods, such as compaction and extrusion, and good-quality coal logs with a diameter range of 1.8-in. to 5.4-in. have been made, using a simple compaction technique. However, for a commercial application, the size (diameter) of coal logs is expected to be much larger than the range studied in this research, therefore, the relationship in terms of quality between small and large coal logs needs to be investigated in both fabrication process and pipeline transportation operation.; This dissertation describes the research work conducted on investigating scale-up behavior of coal logs during fabrication and pipeline transportation, based on the experiments from two different size coal log and pipeline loop systems. The research work covers the scaling-up effect on the strength from 1.8-in. to 5.4-in. coal logs, and on the coal log wearability during pipeline transportation from a 2-in. and a 6-in. loop. |
