Fuzzy logic modelling of sediment transport in annulus

The understanding of sediment transport with fluid in pipes is one of the important issues in hydraulics engineering. If the fluid velocity is lower than a critical value, a stationary cuttings bed develops, which may cause excessive head loss. In this study, a Fuzzy Logic (FL) model is developed to estimate stationary cuttings bed thickness inside the annulus. Experimental data is collected from literature in order to train proposed models. Results showed that the cuttings bed thickness could be estimated using the developed model with a reasonable accuracy when compared with the experimental results. Also, the thickness of the stationary bed can be estimated within an error range of ± 6.8 %, more accurately than the widely used models available in the literature.