Numerical study on flow and wear characteristics of dense fine particle solid–liquid two-phase flow in centrifugal pump

Abstract

The solid–liquid two-phase centrifugal pump is one of the core power equipment of solid phase material hydraulic transportation, widely used in hydraulic engineering, petrochemical industry, marine metal mineral exploitation, urban sewage treatment, and other sectors of the national economy. There is a significant increase in the need to transport dense fine particle slurry in industrial production. Under this condition, the influence of particle parameters on the performance of the centrifugal pump is still not clear. In order to study the flow and wear characteristics of dense fine particle solid–liquid two-phase transported by an open impeller centrifugal pump, the Re-Normalization Group k − ε and dense discrete phase models in Fluent were used to describe the characteristics of the solid–liquid two-phase flow. The numerical model is validated with the experimental data of the pump’s performance. The study indicates that the particle size and concentration have great influence on the wear of the impeller. The wear of the blade pressure surface is the most serious. With the increase of particle concentration and size, the wear area expands to the leading edge and the upper surface of the blade. These results can provide supporting theories for the design of a dense fine particle solid–liquid two-phase medium conveying pump.