Seeking Transparent HPHT Plastic Pipe

Just a thought - what material are the viewing ports of deep-going submarine vessels made of? Hmmmm.............

Last I knew, they were acrylic, but very thick, and in compression, not tension.

Must it be plastic?

Is Pyrex™ Labware available for your specifications? 200^oF is no problem, but the 2000PSI may be an issue.

Yes, the 2000 psi probably would be a problem for Pyrex.

We heard that a pipe made of artificial sapphire would work ... if we had the money for about 70-ft of it with an ID of 6", heh. We use acrylic plastic for another of our loops that operates under ambient temperature and near-ambient pressure conditions, and even that is quite expensive ($2000 for a six-foot length of 8" ID). But it can only handle pressures up to 200 psi.

In response to another post, our "HPHT" loop does have a couple of view ports made of thick glass, but the view ports are very small and we don't really use them.

I would put a sight glass like this

in the loop. You can get them with screw or flange connections. You can get this particular model rated for 300ºF and 2000 psi.

Here is one place you can look (not an endorsement - just the first one I found):

http://www.johnernst.com/flow_indicators_p9.html

Thanks--this looks very much like the view ports we have in our loop. But we would really like to at least have viewable test sections of 6' or more in length to visualize the flow of cuttings in a meaningful way.

Is there a way to demonstrate the phenomena visually without the high pressure and temperature? I'm thinking that you may be able to build a demo unit out of something like this. It wouldn't be functional, but the sponsors would be able to see what happens in the real thing by looking at the demo unit.

http://www.clearpvcpipe.com/clearpvc90elbowslip.aspx

Why not buy/create a video camera that can take the pressure and temperature, should be easy to do -most deep underwater video cams can take that pressure - all you need to do is work on the heat tolerance - you can tolerate under 100C with most devices these days, and it can be watching the flow against a white background. A sealed power/video/zoom/pan/focus cable should be duck soup.

This sounds interesting but, if I understand you correctly, I wonder how such a camera would affect the flow of the liquid/solid mixture?

Re the suggestion of a demo unit made of pvc piping, our 100-ft-long loop made of 8" ID acrylic works fine for that purpose but is limited to ambient temp. and 100 psi.

The loop you now have will have a number of bends in it, all of which will create flow disturbances. A camera looking upstream will see particles prior to impingement of the camera housing = negating the problem (in part). Ideally a circular pipe with only the pump in the path followed by a laminar flow baffle would help.

The only other way would be to create a 2000 PSI test chamber and operate the apparatus inside it = no differential and an acrylic that tolerates 200F would suffice.

This would be a costly apparatus .

Possibly you could tell us what the experiment is for so we can get our minds aroubd all aspects?

Borosilicate looks like the material you need. If money is no object, I think a custom made setup could be found. It looks like the tolerances are doable.

http://www.johnernst.com/glass_gaskets_p43.html

How about a series of small viewing ports at strategic points in the loop?This would be cheaper than one large view port, or exotic materials.

Thanks for all the suggestions. You guys (and gals?) are great. Even though I am a chemist not an engineer, I have learned a lot of interesting things on this site.

BTW, we are already incorporating some of your suggestions, such as the view ports. I was just wondering if a newer type of plastic was available since we last looked into it.

Engineering Plastics

Thanks, Aurizon. I will definitely look into this link.