CFD numerical simulation of sand-contained cavitation characteristics of axial-flow pump

Abstract

To study the effect of sediment on the cavitation in the axial-flow pump, the method of CFD is employed to experiment on the internal flow field of the pump in the case of cavitation in clean water and sandy water separately. The calculation is done with different particle sizes and sediment concentrations. The results show that as the sediment concentration increases, the vortex range and cavitation area of the blade will further increase, and the flow pattern in the impeller becomes more disordered. The mechanism of action of particle size on cavitation is similar to that of sediment concentration. However, cavitation in clean water is quite different from that in sandy water in that the cavitation value and range in sandy water are significantly larger than that in clean water. By contrast, the particle size has little effect on the cavitation value and range. It proves that particle size does not have a great influence on cavitation distribution, but sediment concentration is the main factor affecting the cavitation performance of the pump. Moreover, sediment will disrupt the internal flow pattern of the pump, promote the development of cavitation and further reduce the cavitation performance of the pump.