Solid–liquid transport pumps are widely used in slurry conveying, deep-sea mining, and sediment-laden water delivery, where suspended particles substantially modify internal flow behavior, energy transfer, and operational stability. This review systematically summarizes recent progress on flow evolution and stability issues in centrifugal pumps and related particle-laden pump systems. The fundamental mechanisms of particle dynamics are first discussed, including single-particle transport and force response, particle collision and agglomeration, turbulence modulation by particle assemblies, and wake-induced local disturbances. On this basis, the review further examines particle-induced changes in global flow topology, local separation and backflow, leakage shear layers, and the evolution of representative vortex structures, with particular attention to the enhancement of flow unsteadiness. In addition, the influences of particle size, concentration, density, and shape on hydraulic performance, wear failure, and operational reliability are summarized, together with recent advances in stability evaluation and fault diagnosis. Although substantial progress has been achieved, current studies still show limitations in cross-scale correlation, unified mechanism interpretation, and life-cycle coupled analysis. This review provides a useful reference for understanding solid–liquid two-phase flow mechanisms and for improving anti-wear design and stable operation control of transport pumps.
Jin et al. (Thu,) studied this question.