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FEDSM2009
Proceedings of FEDSM2009
August
ASME 2009 Fluids 2-6, 2009,
Engineering Vail,
Division Colorado
Summer USA
Meeting
August 2-6, 2009, Vail, Colorado USA
FEDSM2009-78564
FEDSM2009-78564
Aleksander S. Roudnev
Ronald J. Bourgeois
Randy J. Kosmicki
Weir Minerals North America
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Figure 4, a, b, and c show internal flow schematic at different through section G and flow rates at discharge throat H and
rates of flow through a slurry pump, based on [2]. Part of the past cutwater T was developed based on conditions of
flow inside the pump casing is directed through the discharge continuity, as presented in Jivotovsky et al. [4]. This approach,
throat and part circulates internally past the cutwater section. based on mean velocity and average flow (MVAF) through
These two flows can be theoretically separated by an casing sections, allows a slurry pump designer to evaluate
imaginary surface that starts at some distance before the liquid velocities and associated relative wear inside the slurry
design section (point a) and ends at the tongue (point b). pump discharge casing for a wide range of flow rates. This is
particularly useful early in the design process when the use of
At the flow rate corresponding to maximum hydraulic more complex numerical simulation methods is not justified.
efficiency of the discharge casing (Fig. 4a), which for the
purpose of this paper is assumed to coincide with the pump MODEL PUMP AND RESULTS OF MVAF
best efficiency point, a division of flow takes place at the PREDICTION
volute tongue such that the velocities in sections T and H are
equal [3]. At partial capacities, as compared to QBEP, less flow The wear studies presented in this paper were obtained for an
goes through the discharge throat (H) and more flow end suction centrifugal slurry pump with a specific speed of
accelerates past the cutwater, (T) as represented by the 33 (1700 US units) with a wide passage volute-type casing
imaginary separation point shifting from point a to point a2 and 5-vane impeller, both made of high chrome iron. The
(Fig. 4b). In both cases the design section flow (G) will exceed pump is capable of passing a particle which is 25% of the
the pump discharge flow rate. discharge diameter. Average pump operating point was at
At over capacity the design section (G) passes less flow than 60% BEP flow rate (0.6 QBEP), relative density of solids SS =
the discharge throat (H), and the cutwater section may see a 2.8, solids concentration by volume Cv = 33% resulting in
back flow of liquid towards the discharge throat, with the relative density of slurry SM = 1.6. A representative solid size
imaginary separation surface shifting to points a1-b1. d85 = 2 mm was used for the purpose of wear rate modeling.
Figure 6 shows an image of the subject pump volute casing
A mathematical relationship, applicable to the discharge taken in the field. Maximum wear area is located between
casings with wide hydraulic passages, between the flow rate sections A and B and shifted towards front (suction) side of
The results of MVAF analysis for 60% of the QBEP flow rate
operation predicts a ratio of maximum wear rate to that at
design section as approximately 3.6 to 1, which is close to the
global actual measured of 0.036/0.011 = 3.27, and wear trend
correctly points towards cutwater section. However the peak
wear is placed directly at the cutwater T versus actual A-B
area, and there is no means to pick up the three dimensional
wear pattern details as the MVAF approach is based on
average values.
70
60
Figure 8. MVAF predicted relative wear rates at various
50 flow rates
40
30 BOUNDARY CONDITIONS FOR CFD WEAR
20 MODELING
10
To improve the accuracy of the predicted absolute wear rates a
0
CFD analysis is required. It is common to use a simplified
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
model of the pump to save computational expense. For
Particle size (d) mm predicting casing wear, this simplification is usually to model
Figure 7. Particle size distribution, d85 selected. a 2D or quasi-3D casing only. The finite element 2D
probabilistic model approach is described in, for example,
When a slurry pump operates at or near its hydraulic BEP flow Shook et al. [5], and finite element quasi-3D modeling
rate, the highest internal velocities in the discharge casing take presented by Addie et al. [6].
place at the design section G and this area will exhibit the
highest relative wear. When the pump operates at partial When modeling these simplified casings it is necessary to
capacity, the pump flow rate decreases, however the flow convert the actual casing cross sections to a representative
through the design section remains fairly constant. At the section of constant depth. This requires that the profile of the
same time, decreasing the pump flow rate will cause velocities casing scroll is modified to maintain the same relative areas as
in all other sections A through F (except the discharge throat) the actual casing. This simplification adds another level of
to increase. As a general guideline, the value of the average uncertainty to the analysis if the original cross section of the
velocity past the cutwater approaches that in the design section casing is not substantially rectangular. In order to obtain a
when pump operates at Q = (0.65…0.7) QBEPh flow rate. If the higher accuracy of wear rate and distribution prediction, it is
flow rate is further reduced the cutwater area (or transitional common to run a 3D single domain analysis using a mesh that
section in case of semi-circular design) becomes the represents the actual casing geometry.
determining factor of casing wear life. As the pump operates
beyond BEP and the pump flow rate increases, flow passing Whether conducting a 2D, quasi-3D, or 3D single domain
through the design section again remains relatively constant, CFD analysis of the casing the boundary conditions at the
D2 × ω g × H th Q
UT = Vt = Vr =
2 UT π × D 2 × b2
A transient rotor-stator simulation moves the impeller mesh in Figure 10. Multi-domain meshes
small increments, solving the flow field at each step and
applying an upwind transient averaging to the intermediate For the CFD simulation results described in this paper, wall
solutions. This approach is computationally more expensive boundary conditions are specified as free slip for the solid
compared to the single domain simulations; however with particles and no slip for the liquid phase. K-epsilon turbulence
model is used for the liquid phase, and a dispersed phase zero
Figure 13. Wear rate prediction: Single-domain, boundary conditions based on theoretical calculations
Figure 14. Wear rate prediction: Single-domain, boundary conditions derived from impeller simulation
Single domain wear prediction using boundary conditions Actual measured wear is obtained from a test pump
derived from impeller simulation (Figure 14) gave the same operating in a minerals processing application. Changing
wear rate magnitude as the first method and also correctly demand of the plant causes variations in pump operating
pinpointed the location of peak wear on the suction side of point and slurry composition throughout the test.
the volute at sections A-B. However this analysis gave no
indication of the characteristic gouge behind the cutwater All CFD simulations are run on geometry which represents
tongue at T. This can be explained, as mentioned earlier, by the new pump components. During the field operation
the fact that the details of impeller-volute domains period pump geometry changes as a result of wear. Actual
interaction are not being captured in this type of analysis, measured wear is based on the final geometry and represent
and some secondary flow effects are not accounted for. an average throughout the life of the part.
Multi-domain transient wear analysis with averaging MVAF average wear profile, as mentioned previously, quite
resulted in predicted maximum wear rate of 0.034 mm/hour satisfactorily indicates relative magnitude of wear variation
(6% below actual), correct location of the peak wear area, around the scroll, as well as overall increase in material loss
and also showed the characteristic asymmetrical wear towards the cutwater area. However location of maximum
behind the cutwater. wear area is shifted and placed directly at the cutwater area
of the casing scroll.
DISCUSSION