CFD analysis on a turbulence generator of medium consistency pump

Abstract

Medium concentration paper suspension is a water-air-fibre three phase suspension. It has complicated physical features. When concentration exceeds 7%, it stops flowing and acts like a solid. A generator suspension is installed before the impeller to disturb the flocs and networks to make it start to flow. In this paper, CFD method is adopted to study the effects of the turbulence generator. As there is not a mature model to describe the characteristic of pulp suspension, Newtonian fluid is used to get the general property of the turbulence generator. In the CFD simulation, apparent viscosity of the pulp suspension is used to characterize the mixture. Firstly, numerical method is applied to get the turbulence generator properties in different rotational speed and different viscosity. From another point of view, air contained in the suspension is separate initially by means of centrifugal force. As it is difficult to describe a practical model of pulp suspension, it is simplified to be a water-air two-phase mixture. Several air contents are simulated to study the air distribution in the turbulence generator. The results show that there are three main effects of turbulence generator. Firstly, it has an entrainment effect of the suspension to make it into the pump. Secondly, it stirs the pulp suspension to bring it into flowing. Last, air is centralized in the shaft centre and pre-separated in the turbulence generator. So, the turbulence generator can pre-treat the pulp suspension to make the MC pump transport suspension successfully.