Centrifugal Slurry Pump Performance and Wear Study- A Critical Review

Abstract

An extensive range of industrial applications of centrifugal slurry pump has been utilized in industry i.e., power plant, mining, petroleum, chemical, food processing etc. As the integral part of the various applications, it is essential to understand the centrifugal slurry pump performance and tribological characteristic. The theoretical head created by slurry pump differs with which type of fluid has been pumped. The performance of the slurry pump from various cases in different operating conditions (Particle size distribution, solid particle, slurry concentration etc.) is discussed. The head created by water is always more than head created by slurry as a working fluid. Wear in the slurry pump is a complex phenomenon because the influences of corrosion wear, erosion wear, and gliding of solid particles in moving fluid along with impact of solid particles to the pump surfaces. Wear in the centrifugal slurry pump is a major concern in industrial applications. It is observed that the major areas affected by the wear are wet parts such as the impeller, casing. Available wear models to predict the wear in slurry pump does not closely match with experimental results. A critical review has been done on experimental and numerical studies. It is recommended to use multi-size particulate for the numerical study and wear prediction of the centrifugal slurry pump to reduce the errors. To improve the centrifugal pump performance and life expectancy design of the pump should be used based on the slurry properties and industrial applications.