Effect of Splitter Configurations on the Performance of a Sludge Pump

Abstract

Sludge pump, a type of centrifugal pump, is widely used to transport high-density sludge. The pump uses the impeller to generate a pressure difference for transporting the working fluid. The impeller is a crucial component of the pump. The internal pressure becomes higher with an increasing number of impeller blades, and this in turn results in an increased head. However, the increase in the number of blades interferes with the pump inlet flow, resulting in an efficiency loss due to an increase of surface friction. Therefore, in this study, numerical analysis was performed using ANSYS CFX ver. 17.1 to elucidate the effect of splitter configurations on the performance of sludge pump. The numerical results were compared with the efficiency and head according to the change of the splitter length, as 35%, 60%, and 80% of the reference blade shape.