scholarly journals Optimization of the centrifugal slurry pump through the splitter blades position

Author(s):  
Ehsan Abdolahnejad ◽  
Mahdi Moghimi ◽  
Shahram Derakhshan

Optimal transfer of two-phase solid-liquid flow (slurry flow) has long been a major industrial challenge. Slurry pumps are among the most common types of centrifugal pumps used to deal with this transfer issue. The approach of improving slurry pumps and consequently increasing the efficiency of a flow transmission system requires overcoming the effects of slurry flow such as the reduction in head, efficiency, and wear. This study attempts to investigate the changes in the pump head by modifying the slip factor distribution in the impeller channel. For this purpose, the effect of splitter blades on slip factor distribution to improve the pump head was investigated using numerical simulation tools and validated based on experimental test data. Next, an optimization process was used to determine the characteristics of the splitter (i.e., length, number, and environmental position of the splitter) based on a combination of experimental design methods, surface response, and genetic algorithm. The optimization results indicate that the splitters were in a relative circumferential position of 67.2% to the suction surface of the main blade. Also, the optimal number and length of splitter blades were 6 and 62.8% of the length of the main blades, respectively. Because of adding splitter blades and the reduction in the flow passage, the best efficiency point (BEP) of the slurry pump moved toward lower flow rates. The result of splitter optimization was the increase in pump head from 29.7 m to 31.7 m and the upkeep of efficiency in the initial values.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Abdolahnejad ◽  
Mahdi Moghimi ◽  
Shahram Derakhshan

Abstract Optimal transfer of two-phase solid-liquid flow (slurry flow) has long been a major industrial challenge. Slurry pumps are among the most common types of centrifugal pumps used to deal with this transfer issue. The approach of improving slurry pumps and consequently increasing the efficiency of a flow transmission system requires overcoming the effects of slurry flow such as the reduction in head, efficiency, and wear. This study attempts to investigate the changes in the pump head by modifying the slip factor distribution in the impeller channel. For this purpose, the effect of splitter blades on slip factor distribution to improve the pump head was investigated using numerical simulation tools and validated based on experimental test data. Next, an optimization process was used to determine the characteristics of the splitter (i.e., length, number, and environmental position of the splitter) based on a combination of experimental design methods, surface response, and genetic algorithm. The optimization results indicate that the splitters were in a relative circumferential position of 67.2% to the suction surface of the main blade. Also, the optimal number and length of splitter blades were 6 and 62.8% of the length of the main blades, respectively. Because of adding splitter blades and the reduction in the flow passage, the best efficiency point (BEP) of the slurry pump moved toward lower flow rates. The result of splitter optimization was the increase in pump head from 29.7 m to 31.7 m and the upkeep of efficiency in the initial values.


Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2003
Author(s):  
Chaoshou Yan ◽  
Jianfei Liu ◽  
Shuihua Zheng ◽  
Bin Huang ◽  
Jiacheng Dai

In order to study the wear law of the centrifugal pump flowing surface under different wear-rings clearance, the McLaury wear model was used to conduct the full-passage numerical simulation of solid-liquid two-phase flow in a single-stage single-suction centrifugal pump. The reliability of the numerical calculation method is verified by comparing the experimental data and numerical simulation results. The clearance is 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5 mm, respectively. The results show that the wear of the centrifugal pump blades is mainly concentrated in the end part and the inlet part of the blade, and the wear of the pressure surface at the end of the suction surface and the front of the blade is more serious. As the clearance increases, the maximum wear value in the impeller increases first and then decreases, reaching a maximum at 0.15 mm. With the increase of the clearance, the wear degree and the wear rate of the volute wall surface first increase and then decrease, and reach the maximum at 0.2 mm. With the increase of the clearance and the concentration of the fluid medium, the wear at the clearance of the centrifugal pump is more serious, and the severe wear area exhibits a point-like circumferential distribution.


2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (4) ◽  
pp. 755-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasushi Tatebayashi ◽  
Kazuhiro Tanaka ◽  
Toshio Kobayashi

The authors have been investigating the various characteristics of screw-type centrifugal pumps, such as pressure fluctuations in impellers, flow patterns in volute casings, and pump performance in air-water two-phase flow conditions. During these investigations, numerical results of our investigations made it clear that three back flow regions existed in this type of pump. Among these, the back flow from the volute casing toward the impeller outlet was the most influential on the pump performance. Thus the most important factor to achieve higher pump performance was to reduce the influence of this back flow. One simple method was proposed to obtain the restraint of back flow and so as to improve the pump performance. This method was to set up a ringlike wall at the suction cover casing between the impeller outlet and the volute casing. Its effects on the flow pattern and the pump performance have been discussed and clarified to compare the calculated results with experimental results done under two conditions, namely, one with and one without this ring-type wall. The influence of wall’s height on the pump head was investigated by numerical simulations. In addition, the difference due to the wall’s effect was clarified to compare its effects on two kinds of volute casing. From the results obtained it can be said that restraining the back flow of such pumps was very important to achieve higher pump performance. Furthermore, another method was suggested to restrain back flow effectively. This method was to attach a wall at the trailing edge of impeller. This method was very useful for avoiding the congestion of solids because this wall was smaller than that used in the first method. The influence of these factors on the pump performance was also discussed by comparing simulated calculations with actual experiments.


2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
Chao Ning ◽  
Yalin Li ◽  
Ping Huang ◽  
Hongbo Shi ◽  
Haichao Sun

Centrifugal pumps are the critical components in deep-sea mining. In order to investigate the particle motion in the curved channel of the impeller, three different types of curvature conform to blade profile to simplify the impeller design of pumps. A numerical study is conducted to investigate the flow field in a varying-curvature channel for solid-liquid two-phase flow. The flow of particles within the varying curvature channel is studied by combining the discrete element method (DEM) with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and a comparison with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) test results. The results show that a polyhedral mesh with a small mesh number yields very accurate results, which makes it very suitable for CFD-DEM. Based on this method, the movement of a single particle is compared and analyzed, and the particle-motion law is obtained. The effects of the curvature ratio Cr and area ratio Ar on the motion law for a single particle are studied, and the simulation results are analyzed statistically. The results show that the effect of Cr on both the particle slip velocity and the turbulent kinetic energy only changes its strength, while the distribution law does not change significantly. Compared with the curvature ratio Cr, the area ratio Ar has a greater impact on the particles, and its distribution law becomes clearly different. As the area ratio Ar increases, the arc radius and length of the corresponding particle trajectory decrease.


Author(s):  
Yasushi Tatebayashi ◽  
Kazuhiro Tanaka ◽  
Toshio Kobayashi

The authors have been investigating the various characteristics of screw-type centrifugal pumps, such as pressure fluctuations in impellers, flow patterns in volute casings, and pump performance in air-water two-phase flow conditions. During these investigations, numerical results of our investigations made it clear that three back flow regions existed in this type of pump. Among these, the back flow from the volute casing toward the impeller outlet was the most influential on the pump performance. Thus the most important factor to achieve higher pump performance was to reduce the influence of this back flow. One simple method was proposed to obtain the restraint of back flow and so as to improve the pump performance. This method was to set up a Ring-like wall at the suction cover casing between the impeller outlet and the volute casing. Its effects on the flow pattern and the pump performance have been discussed and clarified to compare the calculated results with experimental results done under two conditions — namely, one with and one without this Ring-type wall. The influence of wall’s height on the pump head was investigated by numerical simulations. In addition, the difference due to the wall’s effect was clarified to compare its effects on two kinds of volute casing. From the results obtained it can be said that restraining the back flow of such pumps was very important to achieve higher pump performance. Furthermore, another method was suggested to restrain back-flow effectively. This method was to attach a wall at the trailing edge of impeller. This method was very useful for avoiding the congestion of solids because this wall was smaller than that used in the first method. The influence of these factors on the pump performance was also discussed by comparing simulated calculations with actual experiments.


2018 ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiaorui Si ◽  
Qianglei Cui ◽  
Keyu Zhang ◽  
Jianping Yuan ◽  
Gérard Bois

In order to study the flow characteristics of centrifugal pumps when transporting the gas-liquid mixture, water and air were chosen as the working medium. Both numerical simulation and experimental tests were conducted on a centrifugal pump under different conditions of inlet air volume fraction (IAVF). The calculation used URANS k-epsilon turbulence model combined with the Euler-Euler inhomogeneous two-phase model. The air distribution and velocity streamline inside the impeller were obtained to discuss the flow characteristics of the pump. The results show that air concentration is high at the inlet pressure side of the blade, where the vortex will exist, indicating that the gas concentration have a great relationship with the vortex aggregation in the impeller passages. In the experimental works, pump performances were measured at different IAVF and compared with numerical results. Contributions to the centrifugal pump performance degradations were analyzed under different air-water inlet flow condition such as IAVF, bubble size, inlet pressure. Results show that pump performance degradation is more pronounced for low flow rates compared to high flow rates. Finally, pressure pulsation and vibration experiments of the pump model under different IAVF were also conducted. Inlet and outlet transient pressure signals under four IAVF were investigated and pressure pulsation frequency of the monitors is near the blade passing frequency at different IAVF, and when IAVF increased, the lower frequency signal is more and more obvious. Vibration signals at five measuring points were also obtained under different IAVF for various flow rates.


2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. J. Detert Oude Weme ◽  
M. S. van der Schoot ◽  
N. P. Kruyt ◽  
E. J. J. van der Zijden

The effect of trimming of radial impellers on the hydraulic performance of low specific-speed centrifugal pumps is studied. Prediction methods from literature, together with a new prediction method that is based on the simplified description of the flow field in the impeller, are used to quantify the effect of trimming on the hydraulic performance. The predictions by these methods are compared to measured effects of trimming on the hydraulic performance for an extensive set of pumps for flow rates in the range of 80% to 110% of the best efficiency point. Of the considered methods, the new prediction method is more accurate (even for a large impeller trim of 12%) than the considered methods from literature. The new method generally overestimates the reduction in the pump head after trimming, and hence results less often in impeller trims that are too large when the method is used to determine the amount of trimming that is necessary in order to attain a specified head.


Machines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 353
Author(s):  
Hui Quan ◽  
Yanan Li ◽  
Lei Kang ◽  
Xinyang Yu ◽  
Kai Song ◽  
...  

Vortex pumps have good non-clogging performance owing to their impellers being retracted into retraction cavities, but they are much less efficient than ordinary centrifugal pumps. In this paper, numerical simulations were performed on a model of the 150WX200-20 vortex pump for four different blade types, and the influence of blade structure on pump performance was determined. The simulations revealed the existence of axial vortices in the flow passage between the blades in the impeller region. The geometric characteristics of these axial vortices were more regular in two-phase solid-liquid flow than single-phase liquid flow. The presence of the solid phase reduced the vortex strength compared with the single-phase flow and suppressed the increase in size of the secondary circulation vortex. It was found, however, that the blade shape had a greater influence on the circulating flow than the presence of the solid phase. The flow state of the medium flowing out of the impeller domain had a direct effect on the circulating flow with this effect being related to the law governing the flow of the medium in the flow channel between the blades. It was found that the performance of a front-bent blade was the best and that of a curved blade the worst. This influence of blade type on the internal flow structure was used to further explain the relationship between the internal flow structure and the external characteristics of the vortex pump, the understanding of which is crucial for blade selection and hydraulic optimization.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002029402110223
Author(s):  
Baocheng Shi ◽  
Kun Xue ◽  
Jianpeng Pan ◽  
XingKai Zhang ◽  
Ruomeng Ying ◽  
...  

In this study, a non-stirred Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) testing device is developed to measure the flow field in a solid–liquid two-phase centrifugal pump. The pump casing and impeller are made of an organic glass material. Two types of impellers are designed considering different structure parameters. The performance curves of the pump are obtained for the different impellers at a rotating speed of 900 rpm with particle concentrations of 0%, 3%, 5%, and 10%. The flow fields for water and a solid–liquid two-phase mixture for the two impellers are measured utilizing the PIV system in a centrifugal rotating frame at the designed condition. The distribution of the particles, together with its influence on the performance of the different impellers, is analyzed. From a comparison of the relative velocity vector fields, the following can be concluded. First, the pump with a double arc-shaped profile demonstrated a more uniform and stable flow field distribution and higher performance than that with a single arc profile. Secondly, the solid particles were distributed mainly at the outlet of the impeller and volute wall, whereas the concentration distribution of the larger particles tended to match the pressure surface. This research can provide theoretical guidance for the design and optimization of two-phase flow centrifugal pumps.


Author(s):  
Wenqi Zhang ◽  
Shuai Yang ◽  
Dazhuan Wu ◽  
Jiegang Mou

The self-priming pump is widely used in conveying the solid-liquid two-phase flow medium. The particles in the medium erode the components, leading to structural damage and failure. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the 65ZW30-20 self-priming pump is built to study erosion characteristics and mechanisms. FLUENT, along with the Discrete Phase Model and Oka erosion model, is applied for the numerical simulation. The particle distribution, impact times and velocity, and trajectories are taken into consideration to investigate the erosion characteristics in each component. The results show that with the increase of the particle concentration, the head and efficiency decreases gradually. The volute wall and blade leading edge are the most vulnerable regions to erosion, because of a large number of impact times and high impact velocity. Also, the particles impact the front gap wall for fewer times and the hub with lower velocity, which leads to a slighter erosion. Besides, the particle trajectories indicate that some particles impact the blade suction surface and the paraxial area of the shroud, rendering considerable erosion.


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