Experimental and numerical studies of the effect of area ratio and driving pressure on the performance of water and slurry jet pumps

The slurry jet pump with scouring nozzle system can be used in dredging of sites, which are difficult to access or need handling of equipments that are used for the intake of pumping stations under bridges and concrete water channels. This system is suitable for sand, silt, sludge, mud, and other organic materials. The aim of this study is to investigate the performance of water and slurry jet pumps. The effects of the pump-operating conditions and geometries on its performance were investigated. The experimental rig was constructed in such a way that the driving nozzle diameter can be changed. In this study, three different diameters of driving nozzles, 10, 12.7, and 16 mm, have been used with one mixing chamber of 25.4 mm diameter (i.e. three different area ratios of R = 0.155, 0.25, and 0.4). Also, the effect of driving pressure has been investigated. The results show that increasing the area ratio decreases the maximum mass flow ratio. The results of computational fluid dynamics were found to agree well with actual values obtained from the experimental water and slurry jet pump.