Motional characteristic and impact of fiber particles in the impeller of a centrifugal pump

A centrifugal pump whose open impeller was made of polycarbonate was adopted to explore the influence of different concentrations of slender fiber particles on the external characteristics of the pump and to obtain the motional characteristics of the particles in the channels of the impeller. The external characteristics of the pump were used to determine the performance of the pump. A high-speed photographic system was used to analyze the motion of fiber particles in the channels of the impeller. Changes in the head and efficiency of the pump and changes in the distribution of fiber particles in impeller channels were obtained under different concentrations of fiber particles and different flow rates of fiber suspensions. The head associated with the transport of a fiber suspension whose mass concentration of fiber particles was 0.15% and the head associated with the transport of a fiber suspension whose mass concentration of fiber particles was 0.30% did not differ greatly from the head associated with the transport of clean water. However, compared to the transport of clean water, the transport of the fiber suspensions improved the efficiency of the pump. When the pump transported the fiber suspension whose mass concentration of fiber particles was 0.30%, on average, the efficiency of the pump increased by 8.49%. When the flow rates of the fiber suspensions increased, the uniformity of the distribution of the particles increased. When entering the impeller, a small number of fiber particles showed rotating and flapping motions. However, the motions gradually disappeared as the particles left the impeller. At a constant radius (i.e., 75% and 95% radius, respectively), the velocity profile increased gradually when the mass concentration of fiber particles increased from 0.1% to 0.15%. It is manifest that fiber suspension undergoes less flow loss as the mass concentration of fiber particles increases.