Fiscal year 1993 1/25-scale sludge mobilization testing

Sixteen 1/25-scale sludge mobilization experiments were conducted in fiscal year (FY) 1993. The results of this testing are presented in this document. The ability of a single, centrally-located, scale model mixer pump to resuspend a layer of simulated tank sludge was evaluated for five different simulant types. The resistance of these simulants to the mobilizing action of the mixer pump jets was not found to adequately correlate with simulant vane shear strength. The data indicate that the simulant cohesion, as quantified by tensile strength, may provide a good measure of mobilization resistance. A single test was done to evaluate whether indexed mixer pump rotation is significantly more effective than the planned continuous oscillation. No significant difference was found in the sludge mobilization caused by these two modes of operation. Two tests were conducted using a clay-based sludge simulant that contained approximately 5 wt% soluble solids. The distance to which the mixer pump jets were effective for this simulant was approximately 50% greater than on similar simulants that did not contain soluble solids. The implication is that sludge dissolution effects may significantly enhance the performance of mixer pumps in some tanks. The development of a means to correlate the magnitude of this effect with waste properties is a direction for future work. Two tests were performed with the goal of determining whether the 1/25-scale sludge mobilization data can be scaled linearly to 1/12-scale. The two 1/25-scale tests were conducted using the same simulant recipe as had been used in previous 1/12-scale tests. The difficulty of matching the 1/25-scale simulants, with those used previously is thought to have adversely affected the results. Further tests are needed to determine whether the data from sludge mobilization tests can be linearly scaled