Resumen

ORTIZ VIDAL, Luis Enrique; CABANILLAS MAURY, Danny Eugenio  y  FIERRO CHIPANA, Roger Abel. HYDRAULIC BALANCE ON MINE PUMPING SYSTEMS: A CASE STUDY. Ingeniare. Rev. chil. ing. [online]. 2010, vol.18, n.3, pp. 335-342. ISSN 0718-3305.  doi: 10.4067/S0718-33052010000300007.

This study evaluates the influence of the Hazen-Williams and Darcy-Weisbach methods on the hydraulic balance of a mine pumping system. Underground mining sompanies use pumping stations for evacuate the produced water. Designers and equipment sellers use different expressions to estimate the head loss. This study analyzes and validates the implementation of some of these expressions to a mine pumping system. The features of the case study are: water flow rate of 1350 l/s, steel and HDPE diameter pipes of 16in. and 18in., respectively. The total pipe length is 2900m, and the hydraulic height difference is 230 m. The calculations were performed by the above-mention methods, taking the expressions of Haaland, Swamee-Jain and Churchill for friction factors. The results were compared with those measured in field, taking a maximum deviation of system of 28.6% and 3.1% for head loss and total head, respectively.

Palabras clave : Mining pumping; hydraulic balance; pipes flow; head loss; friction factor.