Cavitation and Clogging Analyses of a Submersible Drainage Pump

Abstract

Erosion of material surface due to collisions with solid particles has become a challenge to several engineering fields. Therefore, it is necessary to effectively design radial-flow pumps that mitigate the sediment particles’ clogging effect from impacting the machine’s performance and reliability. This study aims to analyze and identify the clogging development of a newly designed submersible pump using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. The particle trajectory was accounted Tabakoff-Grant erosion model for predicting the clogging impact. The experimental pump performance results obtained by this study were used to validate the existing computational results of the submersible pump. Pump results revealed a good agreement between the two marks, especially the head of the pump was obtained at a flow rate of 0.165 m3/min. When considering the motor power factor of 0.78, the pump efficiency was found to be 46%, and the test result was well-matched. Also, for combined cavitation-erosion, the performance characteristics of erosion rate density increase linearly. At a flow rate of 0.16 m3/min, the erosion rate density of the original model was more significant than the revised model. Furthermore, compared to the original model significantly reduced the adverse clogging effects on the impeller blades of the revised model. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.