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Review
. 2021 Jan 21;14(3):521.
doi: 10.3390/ma14030521.

Strive to Reduce Slurry Erosion and Cavitation in Pumps Through Flow Modifications, Design Optimization and Some Other Techniques: Long Term Impact on Process Industry

Adnan Aslam Noon  1 , Absaar Ul Jabbar  2 , Hasan Koten  3 , Man-Hoe Kim  4 , Hafiz Waqar Ahmed  5 , Umair Mueed  6 , Ahmad Adnan Shoukat  7 , Bilal Anwar  1
Affiliations
Review

Strive to Reduce Slurry Erosion and Cavitation in Pumps Through Flow Modifications, Design Optimization and Some Other Techniques: Long Term Impact on Process Industry

Adnan Aslam Noon et al. Materials (Basel). .

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.

Keywords: CFD; cavitation; centrifugal pump; erosion; process industry.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Centrifugal accelerator erosion tester model comprising of eight internal tubes [7].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Actual and nominal impact angles are compared for solid particles [11].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Wear data explained through the material-specific wear map for a duration of 120 min and for a variable jet velocity [11].
Figure 4
Figure 4
CE and CSE mechanisms (a–c) [13].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Microstructure of a polished surface of (a) alumina and (b) silicon carbide [14].
Figure 6
Figure 6
Impact velocity distribution as a function of angular position [17].
Figure 7
Figure 7
Effect of volume flow on erosion rate [17].
Figure 8
Figure 8
Schematic drawing of a JPCR [28].
Figure 9
Figure 9
Identification of cavitation and amount of cleaning through ideal sensor [32].
Figure 10
Figure 10
(a) Wear map generated for erosion identification (b) velocity streamlines, (c) particles tracking and (d) erosion loss [16].
Figure 10
Figure 10
(a) Wear map generated for erosion identification (b) velocity streamlines, (c) particles tracking and (d) erosion loss [16].
Figure 11
Figure 11
(a) Rapid velocity values near the pillar at Re = 2060, t = 0.07 s, (b) zoomed view of secondary flow zone on pillar [41].
Figure 12
Figure 12
Computational domains for viscous pumps [46].
Figure 13
Figure 13
Streamline behavior for impeller under different NPSH (a–c) [47].
Figure 14
Figure 14
Cut-section for the rotor dynamic test facility [55].
Figure 15
Figure 15
Velocity streamlines at a semi-open impeller [60].
Figure 16
Figure 16
SKE approach and CFD comparison (a) efficiency, (b) NPSHr [65].
Figure 17
Figure 17
Representation of particle shapes before testing [70].
Figure 18
Figure 18
Smooth and micro-grooved impellers comparison: (a) smooth impeller, (b,c) micro-grooved impeller, (d) grooves together with characteristic dimensions [83].
Figure 19
Figure 19
HR and ER against slurry particle concentration [16].
Figure 20
Figure 20
LCC distribution for pump operating without slurry.
Figure 21
Figure 21
LCC against CP efficiency.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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