Numerical simulation on the performance of the vortex pump for transporting solid-liquid two-phase with light particles

Abstract

With the purpose of studying performance of the vortex pump for transporting solid-liquid two-phase with light particles whose relative density smaller than 1, the numerical simulation of solid-liquid two phase flowing in the whole channel of a vortex pump with the particle diameter being 0.5 mm, 1 mm, 2 mm, 3 mm and the initial solid phase volume concentrations being 10%, 20% and 30% are respectively carried out by using the commercial software ANSYS Fluent by adopting RNG κ-ɛ turbulent flow model, Eulerian-Eulerian multi-phase flow model and SIMPLEC algorithm. The simulation results show that in the impeller region, the particles concentrate on the non-working surface of the blades, and the particles are rare on the working surface of the blades. As the initial solid phase volume concentration and particle diameter increase, the pump delivery head of vortex pump decrease. The pump delivery head of vortex pump with different initial solid phase concentrations and different particle diameters are predicted and compared with those obtained by an empirical formula, and they shows good agreement.