An Experimental Investigation on Characteristics of a Slurry Pump

F. NI, W. J. VLASBLOM, A. ZWARTBOL

ABSTRACT: The presence of very fine solid particles, such as silt, clay, in a flow tends to
produce favourable effect on pump performance. However, there is little experimental
evidence on performance of a slurry pump transporting mixtures composed of two or more
sand fractions that differ in size. Effects of various sand sizes and distributions on the
characteristics of a slurry pump are reported in this paper. Three sorts of narrowly graded
sands and their mixtures were tested in the laboratory DN150mm pump loop of the Delft
University of Technology, The Netherlands. The investigation reveals that sand size strongly
affects the pump performance and adding a fraction of the fine sand to a coarse-slurry can
significantly improve the pump performance.
1. EXPERIMENTS
From September 1998 to March 1999 laboratory experiments were carried out. The pump,
driven by a 164 kW MAN diesel engine, has a centrifugal impeller of 400mm diameter,
100mm width at discharge and 3 logarithmic vanes. A data acquisition system supported by
Labview provides on-line observation of all measured quantities in volts and records the data
on a computer disk. The data are collected at the frequency of 1 Hz for 30 seconds. Three
sorts of narrowly graded sands with specific density of 2.65 were used: Fine sand (0.100.15mm, d50 =0.123mm), Medium sand (0.2-0.5mm, d50=0.372mm) and Coarse sand (1.42.0mm, d50=1.840mm). Pump tests on the narrowly graded sands were carried out within two
ranges of delivered volumetric concentration: Cvd =12-35% for the fine sand, and Cvd =642% for the medium and coarse sands. Eight sand mixtures were investigated. The total
concentration of the mixtures ranged from Cvd =25% to 45%. The experiments were
executed at 800 rpm, 1000 rpm and 1200 rpm for each concentration. Pump performance
curves were measured for clear water before and after each sand or mixture test to investigate
the effect of wear. This is taken into account in data processing.
2. EFFECT OF SAND SIZE ON PUMP PERFORMANCE
A dimensionless plot is a useful presentation of pump characteristics and is used in this paper.
Dimensionless head H* is defined as H* = gH/( 2 D2) and dimensionless flow rate as Q* =
Q/( *D3), where g denotes the gravity acceleration in m/s2, H either the head developed in
slurry service Hm, measured in height of slurry, or the head developed in water service Hw,
measured in height of water, Q flow rate in m3/s, pump speed in radians per second, and D
impeller diameter in meter. Fig.1 clearly indicates that sand size has a strong influence on the
performance of the slurry pump. Reductions in head and efficiency increase with sand size
and delivered volumetric concentration. The reductions are rather small for the fine sand but
very significant if the medium or coarse particles are pumped. Fig.1 also reveals that for all
the three sorts of sand the solids effect or the absolute drop in head Hw-Hm or in efficiency
Ew-Em at the same concentration is approximately independent of flow rate, and as a result
the flow rate at the best efficiency point remains unchanged.
F. NI, Prof., Dr., Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Hohai University, Changzhou, 213022,
Jiangsu, P.R. China. Tel/Fax +86 519 5120010. E-mail jidxy@hhuc.edu.cn(o), nyx0512y@pub.cz.jsinfo.net (h)
W.J.VLASBLOM, Prof. ir. and A. ZWARTBOL, Ing, Chair of Dredging Technology, Delft University of
Technology, The Netherlands. Tel +31 15 2783973. Fax +31 15 2781397.

H* (Dimensionless head)
0.16
0.15
0.14
0.13
0.12
0.11
0.1
0.09
0.08
0.07
0

0.01

E [%] (Efficiency)

water 15/09

80

water 30/09

70
60

13-16% 23/09

50

13-16% 23/09

23-25% 24/09

40

23-25% 24/09

34-35% 28/09

30
20

34-35% 28/09

water 15/09
water 30/09

10

0.02

(Dimensionless
flow rate)

Q*

0
0

0.01

0.02

Q*

(Dimensionless
flow rate)

(a) Fine sand, d50=0.123 mm

H* (Dimensionless head)
0.16
0.15
0.14
0.13
0.12
0.11
0.1
0.09
0.08
0.07

water 30/09

80

water 09/10

70

12-14% 02/10
25-27% 06/10
34-35% 07/10
44-45% 09/10

0.01

0.02

Q*

(Dimensionless
flow rate)

E [%] (Efficiency)
water 30/09
water 09/10

60

12-14% 02/10

50
40

25-27% 06/10
34-35% 07/10

30
20

44-45% 09/10

10
0
0

0.01

0.02

Q*

(Dimensionless
flow rate)

(b) Medium sand, d50=0.372 mm

E [%] (Efficiency)

H* (Dimensionless head)
0.16
0.15
0.14
0.13
0.12
0.11
0.1
0.09
0.08
0.07

water 09/03
water 11/03
6-7% 10/03
17-19% 10/03

0.01

0.02

Q*

80

water 09/03

70

water 11/03

60

6-7% 10/03

50

17-19% 10/03

40

30% 10/03

30

30% 10/03

42% 10/03

20

42% 10/03

(Dimensionless
flow rate)

10
0
0

0.01

0.02

Q*

(Dimensionless
flow rate)

(c) Coarse sand, d50=1.840 mm

Fig.1 Dimensionless head and efficiency as functions of dimensionless flow rate.

A quantitative analysis can be obtained from Table 1, where the head reduction factor Rh is
defined as R h = (H w- H m)/Hw and the efficiency reduction factor as Re = (E w- E m)/Ew. For the
fine and medium sands Re R h holds at concentrations up to 35%. This is different from the
general conclusion stated in Wilson (1997) in which a concentration of about 20% is
considered as the turning-point concentration, above which the efficiency reduction factor Re
is more pronounced than the head reduction factor Rh (Sellgren and Vappling, 1986). Within
most of the range of concentrations of coarse sand tested, the pump efficiency drops much
faster than the head as the concentration increases. At concentration of 42% the efficiency
reduction factor and the head reduction factor reach 59% and 40%, respectively.
Table 1. Average performance reduction factors and power ratio
Fine sand (d50=0.123 mm)
Cvd
Rh
Re
Pr
(%)
(%)
(%)
13-16
1.7
4.0
1.03
23-25
4.3
4.0
1.00
34-35
6.8
6.8
1.00

Medium sand (d50=0.372 mm)

Cvd
Rh
Re
Pr
(%)
(%)
(%)
12-14
5.6
4.7
0.99
25-27
10.1
9.3
0.99
34-35
12.7
12.0
0.99
44-45
20.7
23.4
1.03

Coarse sand (d50=1.840 mm)

Cvd
Rh
Re
Pr
(%)
(%)
(%)
6-7
6.8
6.8
1.00
17-19
19.0
22.3
1.04
30
28.3
40.7
1.21
42
39.8
58.6
1.45

Dimensionless power P* as a function of dimensionless flow rate Q* is plotted on Fig.2. The

dimensionless power is defined as P* = P/( * 3 *D5), where P denotes the power input to
the pump in kW, the density of water or slurry in kg/m3, and D the same parameters as
defined in the above section. Fig.2 shows that for either the medium sand or the fine sand
only one curve results for water and all slurry densities, except that data points for

concentration of 44-45% of the medium sand are located a little higher than the curve. This
means that the power ratio, defined as Pr = Pm/(Sm*Pw), where Pm and Pw are power
requirements for slurry service and water service, respectively, and Sm the slurry relative
density, remains unity (see Table 1). In other words, the power consumption at the same flow
rate increases directly with the relative density of the slurry. For the coarse sand, however, Pr
> 1 holds at moderate and high concentrations. At 42% (Sm =1.7), the average power
requirement Pm for slurry service of the coarse sand is 1.45 times larger than (Sm*Pw) and 2.5
times larger than Pw the power requirement for clear water (Table 1).
P* (Dimensionless power)

P* (Dimensionless power)

P* (Dimensionless power)

3.50E-06

3.50E-06

13-16% 23/09

0.01

0.02

1.50E-06

44-45% 09/10

5.00E-07

(Dimensionless
flow rate)

Q*

17-19% 10/03
30% 10/03

34-35% 07/10

34-35% 28/09

6-7% 10/03

2.50E-06

25-27% 06/10

23-25% 24/09

5.00E-07

water 11/03

12-14% 02/10

2.50E-06

1.50E-06

water 09/03

water 09/10

water 30/09

2.50E-06

3.50E-06

water 30/09

water 15/09

(a) Fine sand

0.01

0.02

Q*

(Dimensionless
flow rate)

1.50E-06

42% 10/03

5.00E-07
0

(b) Medium sand

0.01

0.02

Q*

(Dimensionless
flow rate)

(c) Coarse sand

Fig.2 Dimensionless power as a function of dimensionless flow rate.

3. EFFECT OF PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTION ON PUMP PERFORMANCE
By adding the fine sand into the medium sand or the coarse sand, we tested eight mixtures of
them to find the influence of particle size distribution on the pump performance. Fig.3(a)
shows the result of one mixture of the medium sand with the fine sand. By adding 10% of the
fine sand into 25% of the medium sand, we get the round black points for the mixture.
Although the total concentration of the mixture is higher than the medium sand only, the
efficiency reduction for mixture service is smaller than for the medium sand only. A direct
improvement of about 3.0% on the efficiency reduction was obtained. Fig.3(b) shows the
result of one mixture of the coarse sand with the fine sand. A considerable improvement on
pump performance was observed by adding 10% of the fine sand into 25% of the coarse sand.
The direct improvement reaches more than 20%! From the figure one can conclude two
points: (1)the fine sand can improve the pump performance, though it is not very fine
compared with particles of silt or clay, and (2)the degree of the influence of adding the fine
sand into the medium sand is different from that of adding the fine sand into the coarse sand.
The fine sand addition to the coarse sand can improve the pump performance significantly.
Re (Efficiency reduction factor)
20%

24-25%
Medium sand

15%

Re (Efficiency reduction factor)

40%

21-25%
Coarse sand

30%

13-16% Fine
sand

13-16% Fine
sand

10%

20%
25% Medium
sand + 10%
Fine sand

5%
0%

25% Coarse
sand + 10%
Fine sand

10%
0%

10

20

30

40

50

Cvd [%]

(a) 25% Medium sand plus 10% Fine sand

10

20

30

40

50

Cvd [%]

(b) 25% Coarse sand plus 10% Fine sand

Fig.3 Efficiency reduction factor for the mixtures.

Fig.4 presents the flow behaviour of the medium sand and the coarse sand, respectively, in
the horizontal DN150 mm pipe. The hydraulic gradient Im is defined as head loss (m water)
over 1 m length of pipe, and Vm the mean slurry velocity in the horizontal pipe. The figure
clearly shows that for concentrations below 25-26% the coarse-sand slurry exhibits a varying

flow stratification under changing velocity Vm while the medium-sand slurry behaves
regularly with less stratification. Although flow velocities in a pipeline are much smaller than
velocities in a pump, it is believed that slurry flow through pump passages between vanes
may experience similar stratification due to impeller rotation instead of gravitational
sedimentation in a horizontal pipe. Earlier results have shown that the effects of
concentration, particle size and fine particle content on characteristics of a slurry pump have
great similarities to those on flow behaviour in a pipeline (Wilson 1997). Adding the fine
sand to a coarse-slurry may increase the capability of the carrier liquid, formed by water and
the fine sand, to carry coarse particles. As a result, the flow stratification and the coarseparticle trajectory deviation from the liquid streamline due to inertia in a pump decrease.
Since the coarse sand has larger inertia than the medium sand and exhibits stronger flow
stratification, the favourable effect due to the fine sand on head reduction factor and
efficiency factor becomes more significant.

0.4

Im (Hydraulic gradient)

Im (Hydraulic gradient)
0.4
water

0.3

water

0.3
11-13%

0.2

13-16%

0.2
25-26%

0.1

23-24%

0.1

9 Vm [m/s]

(a) Medium sand, d50=0.372 mm

Vm [m/s]

(b) Coarse sand, d50=1.840 mm

Fig.4 Hydraulic gradient versus mean slurry velocity in the horizontal 150 mm pipe

4. CONCLUSIONS
1.

2.

3.

Sand size has a strong influence on characteristics of the slurry pump. For the fine and
medium sand the head reduction equals to the efficiency reduction until Cvd=35%. This
is different from the existing conclusion. While for the coarse sand, the turning-point
concentration is only 15%, above which the efficiency drops faster than the head.
Particle size distribution is very important in determining slurry pump characteristics. A
mixture composed of broader grading solids exhibits smaller resistance in a slurry pump.
The fine sand can lessen the flow stratification and thus improve the performance.
A significant improvement on pump performance was observed by adding the fine sand
to the coarse sand. This is because the coarse sand slurry exhibits stronger stratification.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The study is supported by the MOE Supporting Program for National University Key
Teachers and the MOE Visiting Scholars Research Fund (P.R. China).

REFERENCES
1. Sellgren, A. and Vappling, L. (1986). Effects of highly concentrated slurries on the performance of
centrifugal pumps. Proceedings International Symposium on Slurry Flows, FED Vol. 38, ASME,
USA, pp.143-148.
2. Wilson, K.C., Addie, G.R. Sellgren, A. and Clift, R. (1997). Slurry Transport Using Centrifugal Pumps,
Blackie Academic and Professional.
3. Ni, F. and Matousek, V. (1999). Flow of aqueous mixture of sand composed of fractions of different
particle size, Proc. Hydrotransport 14, BHRG, Maastricht, The Netherlands, pp.31-43.