between pumping chips suspensions slurries compared to pumping water like liquids in general handbooks in pumping provide advice and instructions for pumping water like fluids however the special circumstances of pumping slurries with a high content of solid matter must always be given special attention one difference when pumping chip slurries is that chips suspensions establish a volume of interlocked chips that create a flow restriction or a pressure drop through the chips of the free liquid in the chips suspension slurry through the slurrying vessel it cannot therefore be assumed that a liquid head has the same impact upon the pumping inlets as in any general application where pumps are pumping pure liquid and the hydraulic system volume transmits a full hydraulic pressure as a result of the liquid volume disposed above the pump inlets another difference is that the chips in the chips suspension interlock or have a tendency to interlock to one another that creates a unitary interlocked volume of chips that moves as one u201c plug u201d flow this unitary flow does not behave like a conventional liquid like liquids do it is difficult to break up the unitary plug flow of interlocked chips into several partial flows which would require that the chip plug flow behaves more like a liquid feeding each pump inlet with equal feeding volume tapped off from the chip plug flow when a hot liquid is added to a flow of chips suspension containing interlocked chips such as adding hot black liquor via a pipe it was surprisingly discovered that the hot liquid does not mix well or thoroughly with the chips suspension because hot streaks of black.