Abstract
A large number of solid particles and fibrous impurities are always entrained in the fluid transported by a sewage pump, which can easily lead to the blockage of the sewage pump. In view of this, CFD–DEM simulations were conducted in this paper to reveal the fiber clogging mechanism in the sewage pump. A CFD–DEM coupling method with a fiber model was established and verified by an experimental benchmark, i.e., the rectangular flow channel. The method was then applied to a model sewage pump to, after mesh independence tests, analyze the effects of flow rate and fiber length on fiber motion and clogging. The results showed that the position of fiber retention coincides with the position of the vortex, mainly located at the inlet of the impeller, the head of the blade, the middle of the blade, and the tongue in the pump. In the case of a low flow rate, the fiber was more likely to cause blockage in the head of the blade, and in the case of a large flow rate, the fiber would wind around the tongue in the pump. At the same flow rate, long fiber was more likely to stay on the blade’s suction surface.
Highlights
Pump Based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD)–discrete element method (DEM)With the acceleration of urbanization in the world, sewage volume is increasing continuously
Most of the solid–liquid two-phase flow in sewage pumps is based on solidAt particles, lessofresearch has been two-phase done basedflow on fibers
In order to better study the effect of fiber impurities on the clogging mechanism of sewage pumps, the CFD–DEM coupling method was used to study the motion characteristics of fiber impurities in self-priming sewage pumps
Summary
With the acceleration of urbanization in the world, sewage volume is increasing continuously. Because the CFD–DEM coupling method can simulate particle suspension efficiently and conveniently, it has become the most promising numerical simulation method in the field of solid–liquid two-phase flow research and has been applied by a large number of researchers [17,18]. Hu et al [19] studied the solid–liquid two-phase flow of particles with different particle sizes in a two-stage centrifugal pump by CFD–DEM coupling method. Li et al [20] simulated solid–liquid two-phase flow in a centrifugal pump by CFD–DEM coupling method and carried out two-phase performance and wear tests under different flow rates and particle concentrations. Tang et al [22] considered the movement characteristics of particles and simulated the solid–liquid flow in a single-channel pump by CFD–DEM coupling method. This research could provide theoretical support for the development of a sewage pump suitable for fiber suspension flow
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