Influence of solid particle size and concentration on centrifugal slurry pump performance

Erosion wear caused by the impact of solid particles in centrifugal slurry pumps presents a significant engineering challenge, affecting pump performance. This study investigates the effects of particle shape, size, and mass flow rate on erosion wear and pump efficiency using ANSYS CFX simulations with the Finnie erosion model. The results demonstrate that increasing the shape factor from 0.2 to 0.8, while keeping the particle mass flow rate at 0.5 kg/s and particle size at 500 µm, reduces erosion wear rate density from 5.23 × 10-5 to 3.26 × 10-5 kg/m2, improving pump performance from 56.87% to 67.35%. Conversely, when the particle size increases from 500 µm to 1500 µm, with a fixed mass flow rate of 0.5 kg/s and shape factor of 0.2, the erosion wear rate density rises from 5.23 × 10-5 to 9.75 × 10-5 kg/m², resulting in a performance drop from 65.85% to 54.45%. Furthermore, increasing the particle mass flow rate from 0.5 kg/s to 1.5 kg/s, with a particle size of 500 µm and shape factor of 0.2, elevates the erosion wear rate density from 5.23 × 10-5 to 7.87 × 10-5 kg/m2, causing pump efficiency to decline from 56.87% to 50.28%. The study concludes that more spherical particles and smaller particle sizes lead to lower erosion rates and better pump performance.