Analysis of slurry pump performance has drawn much interest in many engineering fields. When pumps are required to handle slurries. The pump head and performance are mainly affected by the solid size, solid concentration, and solid density.
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There is no such information about the effect of slurry on the performance characteristics of conventional centrifugal pumps when working without and with cavitation. A test rig with a testing centrifugal pump was constructed. The suction pipe between the mixing tank and pump inlet was designed to avoid solid deposition in the suction pipe and to keep the pressure loss between the sump and the pump as low as possible.
The rig was designed so that the flow rates, suction pressure, rotational speed, and solid concentration could be varied independently. The results showed that the head generating capability and pump efficiency decrease, also the power consumption increases with increasing solid concentration, consequently the head and efficiency of the pump with NPSH decreases with increasing the solids concentration and particle size, and cavitation inception accelerate with an increase the solid concentration.
