Analysis of silt abrasion of the impeller ring in a centrifugal pump with J-grooves

Abstract

The water flow and movement of silt in a prototype double-suction centrifugal pump was simulated using an Euler-Lagrange multiphase flow model. J-Grooves were adopted to protect the impeller ring from silt abrasion. The influence of J-grooves on the silt concentration and pump efficiency was analyzed. The results show that the radial component of the relative velocity around the impeller ring is too low to move the silt out of the spacing between the impeller plate and the casing. The high silt concentration around the impeller ring is the major contributor to silt abrasion of the impeller ring. The J-grooves induce two strong vortices, which increase the radial component of the relative velocity of water and reduce the silt concentration around the impeller ring, but additional friction losses are introduced and the pump efficiency is decreased. Optimization of the number and shape of J-grooves decreases losses in the efficiency of the pump, and effectively protects the impeller ring. Case 4 was found the most effective configuration in this study.