Erosion predictions of stock pump impellers based on liquid-solid two-phase fluid simulations

Abstract

Stock pumps cost 25 percent of total power consumption in a modern paper mill. Owing to the severe erosion of pump casing and impeller during operation, stock pump often results in efficiency drop and rising power consumption. A favourable prediction of the impeller wearing character can effective guide optimization design of stock pump impeller. Thereby it can reduce impeller wear and extend stock pump performance life. We simulated the three-dimensional unsteady solid-liquid two-phase flow characteristic in the hydraulic channel of a low specific speed stock pump with open and three blades impeller. The standard k- ε turbulent model and the pseudo-fluid model were adopted in simulation. Clearance between covers and impeller is taken into consideration in modelling, and pulp is simplified into mixtures of solid particles and water. The Finnie prediction model is applied to predict impeller erosion character. The simulation results of different solid particle size are compared with practical impeller erosion character, and the effects of solid particle size on impeller erosion character are obtained. Thus, numerical method to simulate impeller erosion characteristics of fibered pulp is investigated.