Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 876885

www.elsevier.com/locate/engfailanal

Failure analysis of the impeller of slurry pump used in

zinc hydrometallurgy process
Ping Li *, Qizhou Cai, Bokang Wei
The State Key Laboratory of Die and Mould Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong
University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, PR China

Received 24 June 2005; accepted 14 July 2005

Available online 6 September 2005

Abstract

The failure of the trial impeller of slurry pump used in zinc hydrometallurgy process occurred only after a service of
about a month, the expected service life was more than 3 months. The failure impeller was subjected to serious corrosive
wear. This paper deals with failure analysis of the impeller (mainly including composition analysis of the slurry, cor-
rosive wear surface characteristics by visual inspection and optical microscopes as well as scanning electron microscope
(SEM), composition analysis of the impeller material by spectrum analyser and SEMEDX, microstructure analysis by
optical microscopes) and an improved method. Failure analysis revealed that an improper austenite/ferrite ratio of
duplex stainless steel (DSS) material resulting from a too high nitrogen content was primarily responsible for the rapid
failure of the impeller. In addition, a melting test in a vacuum furnace veried again that nitrogen content had a sig-
nicant eect on austenite/ferrite ratio of duplex stainless steel, a comparing corrosive wear test revealed further that
DSS consisting of equal austenite/ferrite volume showed better corrosive wear resistance.
 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords: Failure analysis; Impeller; Corrosive wear; Duplex stainless steel; Nitrogen

1. Introduction

Eighty percent of worlds total zinc is produced by the traditional zinc hydrometallurgy process [1].
Among the equipments used in the service condition, slurry pumps are easily damaged , mainly because
the serious failure of their impellers is subjected to not only the erosion of the slurry but also the corrosion
of the slurry, namely the combined erosioncorrosion (EC) or corrosive wear(CW) [25]. Therefore,

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 27 87543876; fax: +86 27 87541922.
E-mail address: leeping68@163.com (P. Li).

1350-6307/$ - see front matter  2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2005.07.004
 P. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 876885 877

increasing attention has been paid to the serious problem and many researchers have been embarking on
the studies of corrosive wear in recent decades [28]. The failure of the trial impeller occurred only after a
service of 28 days. The expected service life was more than 3 months. The failure impeller was received for
failure analysis. This paper presents the failure analysis of the impeller of slurry pump and an improved
measure, in addition a corrosive wear test was carried out for verifying improving eect.

2. Experimental procedure

The slurry composition was examined by chemical analysis. The surface characteristics of the failure
impeller were carried out by visual inspection and optical microscopes. The sample materials for composi-
tion, microstructure and property were taken from either the vane or the soleplate of the impeller. The com-
position of the impeller material was determined by using a standard spectrum analyser as well as a Quanta
200 type scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis
facility (SEMEDX). The microstructure was analyzed by optical microscopes. The samples for micro-
structure studies were prepared in the usual metallographic manner, they were polished and etched with
aqua regia (also called: nitrohydrochloric acid). Hardness testing was performed by using a Vickers Hard-
ness testing machine and HB 3000 Brinell hardness testing machine.

3. Results

3.1. Service condition of the impeller of slurry pump

Zinc hydrometallurgy process involves roasting, leaching, purication, electrolyte deposition, melting
into zinc ingot and so on, in leaching process a number of slurry pumps are used to transport solidliquid
mixed slurry containing ZnSO4 particles, silica and diluted sulfuric acid and so on to a lter to be puried.
The analysis result of slurry solution is shown in Table 1. The temperature of the slurry solution is about
70 C,the density of that is 1.681 g/L, the mass ratio of liquid to solid for the slurry is about 8:1 and its pH
value is about 3. The pumps run at a speed of 2900 rpm, the capacity is 60 m3/h, the new impeller weighs
8 kgf with a base thickness of 12 mm and diameter of 200 mm, main vain height of 53 mm, auxiliary vane
height of 10 mm.

3.2. Visual inspection

Fig. 1 shows the appearance of the slurry pump. From Fig. 1 we can see that the shell of pump at oper-
ation stage was seriously corroded by slurry solution. Figs. 2 and 3 show the appearance of the new impeller
and the failure impeller. In comparison with a new one, the impeller after the failure was severely deformed.
As shown in Fig. 3, we easily found that there was an obvious gap at the dierent parts of the failure impel-
ler. Erosioncorrosion of the working side (towards main vanes) was more serious than that of nonworking
side (towards auxiliary vane). The color of the working side is bright, there is no passivation lm on it, it
could be divided into three dierent regions slightly dierent as reported by Fan et al. [5]. At the region I

Table 1
The analysis results of the slurry
Constituent Zn Mn SiO2 CaO SO2
4 Cl F Cd Fe
The content (g/L) 100180 35 0.10.5 0.10.3 41.245 0.638 3.87 0.31.0 0.12.0
878 P. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 876885

Fig. 1. The appearance of the slurry pump.

Fig. 2. The new impeller.

Fig. 3. The impeller after the failure.

within a circling diameter of 50 mm, there was almost negligible attack and the surface was still in its integ-
rity. At the region II with a circling diameter from 50 to 120 mm, a strongly tangential stress and slightly
normal force due to strong swirl ow existed which caused the destruction of the main vanes and irregular
scratches of the soleplate and vanes (see Figs. 4 and 5). At the region III with the circling diameter above
120 mm (peripheral velocity is 18.2 m/s), due to the action of higher peripheral velocity and slighter swirl
ow, we clearly found that the rim of the soleplate was severely eroded due to which one region was nearly
 P. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 876885 879

Fig. 4. Large erosion ravines at region II.

Fig. 5. Ripple-like worn surface at the inner side and outer side of main vanes 50.

worn-out, namely the corrosive wear level raised drastically with the increase in the diameter of impeller.
There were clear and regular erosion ravines at the rim of the soleplate (region I), therefore, 18.2 m/s may
be regarded as a critical value of peripheral velocity (namely breakthrough velocity) in this case, above
which the mass loss of the impeller increases violently with the increase of the velocity. Whereas nonwork-
ing side showed slight erosion, the passivation lms were clearly seen on it.

3.3. Chemical analysis

The chemical composition of the impeller material is shown in Table 2. It shows that the impeller was
made of duplex stainless steel (DSS).

3.4. Microscopic analysis

The microstructure of the failure impeller is shown in Fig. 6. The microstructure is austeniteferrite
DDS, the black matrix is austenite, while white patches indicate ferrite in the matrix, the ferrite consists
of below 30% in the total volume. The average hardness of austenite and ferrite is 400 and 455 HV,
respectively.

Table 2
Chemical composition of the studied DSS samples (wt%)
Alloy C Si Mn Cr Mo Ni Nb Cu V N Creq/Nieq
The failure impeller 0.065 1.25 0.54 25.22 1.73 4.95 0.408 2.08 0.39 0.319 29.029/16.74 = 1.734
The improved 0.073 1.20 0.61 24.98 1.66 5.03 0.77 2.97 0.409 0.238 28.825/14.665 = 1.966
880 P. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 876885

Fig. 6. The optical micrograph of the failure impeller 100 (austenite in black, ferrite in white).

The results analyzed by EDX are shown in Fig. 7 and Table 3, respectively. The result shows that aus-
tenite consists of enriched nickel and copper, but poor chrome, molybdenum and silicon; ferrite consists of
enriched chrome, molybdenum and silicon, but poor nickel and copper.

3.5. Hardness testing

The average hardness values for steel S1 and steel S2 were 283 and 306 HB, respectively.

Fig. 7. EDX results of phases in the failure impeller.

 P. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 876885 881

Table 3
Element contents of a and c phases in the failure impeller (wt%)
Phase Si Cr MO Ni Cu Fe
a 1.58 28.98 2.06 4.03 1.17 66.28
c 1.05 22.13 1.23 6.35 3.04 65.43

4. Discussion

4.1. Bibliographical review

This section presents briey the information studied about the eects of nitrogen on the microstructure,
and the corrosive-wear characteristics for dierent volume fractions of ferrite and austenite of CD-4MCu
duplex stainless steels (DSSs) . The ultimate aim of this work is to nd out the rational nitrogen content and
proper volume fractions of ferrite and austenite in order to meet the best corrosive-wear property of DSS,
which will be the best possible to guarantee the expected service life of the impeller of slurry pump used for
traditional zinc hydrometallurgy process.
Duplex stainless steels (DDSs) are characterized by having a two-phase microstructure consisting of
approximately equal volume fractions of ferrite (a) and austenite (c). Generally speaking, the volume frac-
tion of fewer phases is desired above 30% [911]. DDSs have a combination of excellent corrosion resis-
tance and high strength similar to that of ferritic stainless steels, as well as toughness of austenitic
stainless steels [913]. These properties suggest that DDSs are excellent materials for wide industrial appli-
cation on oil and gas reneries, oshore platforms, chemical plates, pulp and paper industries, nuclear reac-
tors and process systems, etc. [1420].
Nitrogen is a kind of austenite stabilizing element, its Ni equivalent (Nieq) is 30 [21] and pitting corrosion
resistance equivalent (PREW) is 16 times that of Cr [22], and therefore nitrogen addition can substitute
costly and scarce nickel with a small amount like 0.10.3 wt% [2328].
Long and DeLong [21] suggested that the eect of the elements on Cr equivalents (Creq) and Ni equiv-
alents (Nieq) with the following equations:
Creq wt%Cr wt%Mo 1.5wt%Si 0.5wt%Nb; 1

Nieq wt%Ni 0.5wt%Mn 30wt%N wt%C. 2

Chemical analysis showed that N content of the failure impeller was 0.319%, above the recommended
level (0.10.3%) [25,26].
It is found that the austenitic phase has a low stacking fault energy (SFE) and develops a planar dislo-
cation structure during deformation,while the ferritic phase exhibits a higher SFE and cross slip can easily
occur during deformation [29,30]. Research [31] found that during corrosive wear, the abilities of surface
deformation strengthening of two phases in DSS were very dierent. In the given corrosive wear condition,
high-density dislocations in the c phase of DSS made the c phase at surface and subsurface harder than that
in the a phase of DSS, and suggested that a proper ratio of the c phase is very important [32].

4.2. Experimental verication

The section presents an improved test in order to verify further the above analysis.
The studied materials were rstly melted in a 15 kg vacuum furnace and cast into 180 mm
150 mm 60/25 mm Y-type blocks. For adding nitrogen, Fe59.4Cr5.5 N master alloy was used. The
chemical composition of the ingots is shown in Table 2, it is found that N content was 0.238% in the
recommended level. The ingots were machined into 20 mm 20 mm 15 mm square samples to analyze
882 P. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 876885

microstructure and 50 mm 10 mm 5 mm square samples for corrosive wear test. The samples were solu-
tion treated at the temperature of 1050 C for 1.5 h and water quenched, then tempered at the temperature
of 550 C for 1.5 h and air cooled. The microstructure of the improved sample is shown in Fig. 8, the vol-
ume fraction of austenite and ferrite is about 50%, respectively. Creq, Nieq and Creq/Nieq of two kinds of
steels are also shown in Table 2, Creq/Nieq are 1.734 and 1.966, respectively. The actual ferriteaustenite
content of Creq/Nieq and the calculated results are in good accordance with Parks report [33].
To further conrm the eect of the phase ratio of DSS on the corrosive wear, a simulated corrosive wear
test was carried out by a self-made rotating disk apparatus (Fig. 9) with the samples removed from the fail-
ure impeller (S1) and the improved material (S2). The medium is the slurry from zinc hydrometallurgy pro-
cess . The tests were controlled at the temperature range 70 3 C, the tests ran 5 times and the average
results were taken as corrosive wear rate (Vt), respectively. The peripheral velocity of tests is 18.5 m/s.
The test duration is 10 h.
At the same time, to compare the corrosive resistance of two kinds of steels, a corrosion test was per-
formed. Pure corrosion rate test is similar to Zheng s method [34], it means the mass loss rate under the
corrosion condition without any eect of erosion, namely under static mass loss rate. For each material,
ve samples were used for static immersion test (the medium is the same as CW test) and the average result

Fig. 8. The optical micrograph of the improved sample 100 (austenite in black, ferrite in white).

Fig. 9. Schematic diagram of corrosive-wear test apparatus. (1) AC mortor; (2) cone pulley; (3) AC mortor; (4) slurry; (5) sample disc;
(6) sample xing screw; (7) sample; (8) slurry vessel; (9) water vessel; (10) thermostat; (11) water; (12) cover board; (13) clamping setup.
 P. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 876885 883

Fig. 10. The pure corrosion rates (Vc) of two kinds of the tested steels. (S1: the failure impeller sample, S2: the improved sample.)

Fig. 11. The corrosive wear rates of two kinds of the tested steels (Vt). (S1: the failure impeller sample, S2: the improved sample.)

is taken as its pure corrosion rate (Vc). The test duration is 720 h. The corrosive rate and corrosive wear rate
are calculated by the following equation:
DW
V ; 3
At
where V is the corrosive rate or corrosive wear rate (g/m2 h); DW, mass loss volume (g); A , surface area of
the sample (m2); and t, the processing time (h).
Figs. 10 and 11 show the pure corrosion rates (Vc) and the corrosive wear rates (Vt) of the two kinds of
steels tested, respectively.The pure corrosion rates (Vc) of the two kinds of steels are very low and almost
negligible, it manifests that the two kinds of steels have excellent corrosion resistance in the tested medium.
Whereas the corrosive wear rates (Vt) of the two kinds of steels show the signicant dierence, that of steel
S1 is far higher than that of steel S2. The results of the CW test also testify the above analysis.

Fig. 12. SEM micrographs of corrosive wear scar. (S1: the failure impeller sample, S2: the improved sample.)
884 P. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 876885

From SEM micrographs of the worn surfaces of two kinds of steels after the corrosive wear tests, we
found that large erosion ravines and serious brittle ake-o had occurred within the surface of S1 due
to violent ow impingement and sequential extrusion-forging action (Fig. 12); whereas a slight wear track
had taken place in the surface of steel S2 under the same condition. It further conrms the above analysis.

5. Conclusion

 Under the service conditions of zinc hydrometallurgy process, the failure of the impeller of slurry pump
initiated from the serious corrosive wear. Corrosion is in a subordinate position, but erosion takes up a
dominant position in total erosion wear volume.
 Too high nitrogen addition in the duplex stainless steel (DSS) resulted in a too low ferrite content, as a
result of too short service life; a recommended nitrogen content value is 0.10.3%
 The result of simulated corrosive wear test indicated that DSS possessing almost equal ferrite and aus-
tenite volume showed better corrosive wear resistance.

6. Recommendations

It is recommended that in future, before being placed into service, a quantitative analysis of the nitrogen
content for every batch of the impeller should be carried out by using chemical method, not using spectral
analysis. At the same time for duplex stainless steels, it is important that heat treatment should be appro-
priate, usually of the order of solution heat treatment for 1.5 h at 1500 C and water quenched, then aging
for 1.5 h at 500 C and air cooled. In addition, after heat treatment it is necessary that for every batch of the
impeller the microstructure should be inspected by using an additive sample with the same chemical com-
position and heat treatment method.

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