Working points on-line intelligent optimization strategy for dredging slurry pipeline transportation

Based on the analysis of the structure and boundary conditions of a dredge slurry pipeline transport system, a novel working points on-line intelligent optimization strategy was introduced, which uses the pipeline system’s specific energy consumption as its optimization goal. It can solve not only the problem of high energy consumption and low efficiency of the optimization methods which use output maximum as their goals, but also the problem that offline static optimization methods can’t be applied to the slurry pipeline transport system’s working points on-line continuous optimization. Based on the real time process data analysis, this method uses the intelligent technology, such as fuzzy decision and data fusion, to optimize the operating points’ parameters. This method doesn’t rely on the precise description of the characteristics of slurry pipeline transport system and it can be easily applied to the dredging operation, during which the soil and system’s characteristics vary from time to time. Field experiments were carried out to verify the novel optimization strategy. Experiment results show that this method can not only improve the dredging output, but also minimize the fluctuation of slurry concentration and velocity, thus the slurry pipeline transport system’s specific energy consumption is lower and its efficiency is higher.