Influence of Blade Thickness on Solid–Liquid Two-Phase Flow and Impeller Wear in a Ceramic Centrifugal Slurry Pump

Yi Tao,Yingchun Wu,Yongming Bai

doi:10.3390/pr9081259

Abstract

The impeller blades of ceramic slurry pumps are usually very thick for the purpose of prolonging the service life. In this paper, numerical simulations and wear test were conducted to investigate the influence of blade thickness on the solid–liquid two-phase flow and impeller wear in a ceramic centrifugal slurry pump. The wear test was conducted for CFD validation. The numerical results show that the incident angles of solid particles increase with increasing blade thickness, which results in larger wrap angles of the solid particle trajectories. The increasing wrap angles of the solid particle trajectories offset the region that the collisions between the blade pressure side and the solid particles side take place towards the impeller exit and lead to more impacts between the solid particles and the blade suction side. The numerical results are in good accordance with the wear pattern of the tested impellers, which demonstrates that the numerical method adopted in this paper is predictable in the abrasion of the impeller of a ceramic centrifugal slurry pump. The experimental results show that an increase in the blade thickness alleviates the abrasion of the leading edges and the pressure side of the impeller blades; however, it also aggravates the abrasion of the blade suction side and decreases the pump performance.

Highlights

In industries like metallurgy, mining, chemical engineering, and environmental protection, slurry pumps fail due to severe wear of the components, especially the impeller, caused by the frequent impingement of the solid particles in slurry
The region with relatively large solid fraction on the blade pressure side is offset towards the impeller exit as the blade thickness increases
The effect of blade thickness on the solid–liquid two-phase flow and impeller wear in a ceramic centrifugal slurry pump was numerically and experimentally investigated

Summary

Introduction

In industries like metallurgy, mining, chemical engineering, and environmental protection, slurry pumps fail due to severe wear of the components, especially the impeller, caused by the frequent impingement of the solid particles in slurry. To address this problem, ceramic centrifugal slurry pumps can be utilized as a substitute for alloy pumps and nonmetal pumps. Ceramic centrifugal slurry pumps can be utilized as a substitute for alloy pumps and nonmetal pumps They have excellent resistance to abrasion, erosion, and high temperature, which can save massively on metal resources and prolong the service life of flow components, increasing enterprise efficiency [1]. The thicker blade trailing edges results in an increase in the crowding coefficient, which can influence the flow pattern in the impeller passages, decreasing the pump suction performance [3,4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion