In March, Paterson & Cooke will give two presentations of their annual course on the design of slurry pipeline systems at the Breakwater Lodge in Cape Town’s Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. The event, which has been running since 1996, is aimed at providing guidance for the design of slurry pipeline systems for the mining and process industries. It provides delegates with a sound understanding of slurry flow mechanisms and an appreciation of the design requirements for a successful slurry pipeline transportation system.

The course will cover topics including flow behaviour and modelling of different types of slurries, centrifugal and positive displacement pumps, pump and pipeline wear, instrumentation and laboratory techniques, valves for slurry service and hydraulic design and engineering considerations.

Formal design sessions are included in the course. Delegates are divided into four groups and tasked with designing a number of typical slurry pumping systems. Each design session is led by a senior engineer from Paterson & Cooke. Hands-on demonstration sessions are conducted to illustrate pipeline hydraulics, settling slurry flow behaviour and rheology measurement techniques for non-Newtonian slurries. Delegates are issued with a comprehensive set of printed reference notes and suggested solutions for the design tasks.

The course has proven to be extremely popular and delegates from Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Israel, Canada, France, Namibia, the Netherlands, Tanzania, the UK, the USA and Zimbabwe have attended previous courses.

Two identical courses will be presented at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The first course will be presented from 3 to 6 March and the second from 10 to 13 March 2009. For more information on the courses visit www.patersoncooke.com