Particle behaviours in dense-particle fluid flow encountered in centrifugal slurry pump poses instability on hydraulic efficiency and wall erosion, however, is poorly understood to date. This work presents numerical study on particle-fluid flow in centrifugal slurry pump, with special reference to inter-phase forces, by hybrid model integrating computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method (CFD-DEM), rigid body motion and erosion. The hydraulic and erosion model validity has been verified by clear water performance and jet erosion test, respectively. Moreover, it is found that this CFD-DEM based model exhibits realistic erosion prediction with particle-resolved phase interaction, after comparisons made to DDPM method accordingly. It therefore opens a gateway for industrial analysis of pump performance and erosion on particle scale. So far, the results indicate that enlarged size distribution intensifies total pump erosion severity. Furthermore, particles are observed with slighter drag force and appeal to insignificant clustering in impeller eye region. Nevertheless, the developed in-house CFD-DEM solver exhibits promising capability elaborating particle-fluid flow, as well as integration of multi-physics of turbomachinery process in analogy.
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