Solid-phase effects on the performance of a centrifugal slurry pump using computational fluid dynamics

The centrifugal slurry pump is the most common slurry flow pump used in mining industries. The pump head and efficiency are affected by the size, concentration, and density of solid particle when these pumps are applied for the control of slurries. Because the suspended solids in the liquid could not well absorb, store, and transmit pressure energy, they cause quite different changes in efficiency and performance curve shape. This study was conducted to investigate the variations of the mentioned factors at different flow rates using a numerical simulation of the centrifugal slurry pump. For this purpose, the 3D turbulent flow was solved by applying Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations using the Shear Stress Transfer (SST) turbulence model based on Eulerian-Eulerian for 45% to 120% flow rates in CFX (Ver. 17) software. The accuracy of the numerical solution was investigated by comparing the characteristic curves resulting from the numerical solution with experimental data‏. The obtained results show a satisfactory fitting among the calculated values from the numerical analysis and experimental data to predict pressure and velocity distribution and global performance. Moreover, by simulating the effect of different parameters of the slurry flow, their effect on the characteristic curves of the slurry pump was compared. These results reveal that the numerical solution can efficiently predict the variation trend of the slurry flow parameters.