Numerical and Experimental Study of Hydraulic Performance and Wear Characteristics of a Slurry Pump

Abstract

The slurry pump is widely used in ore mining, metal smelting, petrochemical, and other industries, mainly to transport fluid media containing large solid particles. Importantly, it is easy to damage the impeller of a slurry pump in the operation process, which greatly affects the performance of the pump. In this paper, a 25 MZ slurry pump was selected as the research object, and the Euler–Euler multiphase flow model was employed to analyze the internal flow characteristics of the slurry pump under the conditions of clear water and solid–liquid two-phase flow. Additionally, the flow characteristics of each part under different flow conditions were studied, and the effects of different particle volume concentrations, particle sizes, and pump speeds on the impeller’s wear characteristics and hydraulic performance were analyzed. In order to verify the reliability and accuracy of the numerical simulation results, clean water and solid–liquid two-phase flow wear tests of the slurry pump were carried out, and the results showed that a high solid volume fraction and solid–phase slip velocity were generated at the junction of the blade leading edge and the rear cover plate, thus leading to easier wear of the blade. Therefore, enhancing the strength of the junction between the blade leading edge and the rear cover plate is beneficial for improving service life and should be considered in the design of slurry pumps.