[b]”I have modified this from my original post wich was quite unclear. Appologies i was in a rush.”
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I have been a piping designer for about 8 years now and have only worked on petrochemical plants.

I now find myself as the lead (only) piping designer for a small company in the mining sector, and am finding it difficult to find information regarding piping layouts for lines in slurry services.

The primary area of difficulty I am having is with parallel pump piping layouts (mainly discharge layouts for centrifugal type pumps).

In Hydrocarbon work I was mainly dealing with liquids or solutions and there was no real drama in coming up off the discharge nozzle then across and down to clear the pump and get the valves down to a good operable height, so long as the line was drainable. With slurries this is going to block up faster especially if the pump is out of service. Ovbsiouly a drain is not going to be as effective as a flanged spool that can be accessed for blast out. Would this be considered a reasobably maintainable option for slurry piping?

Also my logic leads me to believe that slurries being more prone to friction should be pumped at (45 deg) in a parallel system. Coming forward off the pumps and connecting via a 45 deg lateral, however This arrangement is more real-estate hungry and access restricting than the conventional method of pumping the standby into to the main line at 90 deg.

Is it acceptable to pump slurries with such a sharp change in direction?

Is there an easy way of calculating or estimating if the velocity/friction loss of the slurry being pumped at the change of direction will have adverse effects on the system or is at risk of blocking the line?

Is there a “standard” layout for piping of slurries? Is there any advice you can give me regarding similar piping configurations for slurries?

I know there are alot of questions here but i would appreciate some guidance from anyone with experience.

Thanks in advance.