PARTICULATE MOTION AND CONCENTRATION FIELDS IN CENTRIFUGAL SLURRY PUMPS

ABSTRACT

Erosion wear of centrifugal slurry pumps is primarily governed by the particulate motion and concentration as well as their physical properties. This paper presents a quasi-3D approach to predict particulate phase motion and concentration in an arbitrary radial section of a centrifugal slurry pump. A brief discussion of the fully developed turbulent flow solution of the carrier fluid is followed by a computation of the particulate phase velocity resulting from a force balance between the pressure, gravity, viscous and inertial effects. The concentration distribution is obtained by invoking the convection-diffusion equation. The governing partial differential equation is cast into a weak Galerkin finite element form. The system of algebraic equations is solved by a Newton-Raphson scheme via a frontal solver. An iterative solution scheme is employed to alternate between the fields of particle motion and concentration. Numerical solutions are examined in light of their applicability to the solution of the pump wear problem.