Optimization of impeller of deep-sea mining pump for erosive wear reduction based on response surface methodology

Abstract

In a deep-sea mining system, coarse-grained minerals are transported most of the time, which puts greater demands on the hydraulic performance and wear resistance of the mining pump than the transport of other types of materials. The pump performance is affected by the parameters of its main flow passage components. The parameters of the impeller were studied in depth to propose a novel mining pump, and the wear conditions of single-stage mining pump produced by different types of solid particles and operating conditions were analyzed. After numerical simulations of 29 models were conducted, the response surface methodology (RSM) was used to develop an optimized pump model that achieves better performance than the original model. The efficiency is improved by 1.2%, head is reduced by 0.34 m, and the impeller average wear intensity is reduced by 29.5% under rated conditions.

Keywords:

• deep-sea mining pump
• hydraulic performance
• wear characteristics
• response surface methodology
• optimization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Project of China (2016YFC0304103). Ministry of Science and Technology, PRC.