Abstract
Centrifugal pumps are being widely used in various industries for moving fluids that carry solids through pipelines where the need of head and flow rate is not high. Slurry erosion and cavitation are an extremely complex and not yet fully understood phenomenon that occur in centrifugal pumps; however, these undesirable phenomena can be reduced to a certain extent. Appropriate design and development of experiments is required to reasonably predict slurry erosion and cavitation. However, CFD methodology complements analytical solutions and experiments whenever testing of equipment has limitations. The current paper highlights the various slurry erosion and cavitation reduction techniques utilized by different researchers. Economic analysis conducted for a case study relevant to centrifugal pump (CP) usage in Pakistan shows that an 8% enhancement in pump efficiency can reduce the life cycle cost to about 17.6%, which could save up to USD 4281 for a single pump annually in Pakistan.
Highlights
Pumps are the most important industrial equipment used for the transportation of liquids carrying solids
It seems necessary that appropriate CFD methodology is required in emphasizing the significance of slurry erosion and cavitation as applying certain analytical methods and testing of equipment both have limitations
They concluded that, for ductile steels and hard white irons, erosion rate decreases with higher values of particle Circularity Factor (CF), and an inverse power law relationship exists for wear rate of white irons with CF, but specific wear rates will depend on particle size, density, and impact angle, as the hardness of silica, alumina and hard SiC are higher than mineral ores
Summary
Pumps are the most important industrial equipment used for the transportation of liquids carrying solids. Slurry erosion occurs when the solid particles entrained in the liquid flow impact the pump impeller or volute casing with high velocity. Cavitation arises due to the pressure fluctuations in pumps, resulting in vapor bubbles forming in low-pressure zones which implode when reaching the high-pressure zones Both slurry erosion and cavitation cause damage to metal surfaces affecting the shape of impeller blades and volute casing. The damaged surfaces alter the flow characteristics significantly which play vital role in furthering the erosion process [1]. This phenomenon results in the loss of hydraulic performance of the pump on one hand, and increased noise and vibrations on the other hand. Enhancement in pump efficiency can reduce the life cycle cost to about 17.6% which could save USD 4281 for a single pump annually
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