A bionic blade with convex domes was applied in a double suction centrifugal pump to improve erosion resistance of the blade surfaces in this study. The hydraulic performance of the pump was simulated and the numerical results were in good agreement with the experiment data. The erosion rates of the smooth blade and bionic blades with convex domes at different heights (1.0 mm, 1.5 mm, 2.0 mm ) were numerically predicted. The results showed that the pump with bionic blades had a higher head and a lower efficiency than those of the pump with smooth blades. A comparison of the erosion rates indicated that the bionic blades exhibited much better erosion resistance than the smooth surface ones. The high erosion-rate area was reduced remarkably and the erosion region became more dispersed on the whole bionic blade surface. The pressure side of the blade with 2.0 mm-height convex domes showed better anti-erosion performance than those with other two heights, while the suction side with 1.0 mm-height domes showed better anti-erosion performance.
Large amounts of sediment in the Himalayan rivers causes severe silt erosion to the hydraulic machinery operating along these rivers. In this study, the effects of silt characteristics on the silt-erosion characteristics of a double-suction centrifugal pump was studied and the anti-erosion property of bionic convex domes on silt erosion under these conditions was explored by using computational-fluid-dynamics methods, partly supported by a painted-blade erosion experiment. The results show that the silt size affects the erosion position and erosion strength, whereas the silt concentration mainly affects the erosion strength for the studied range. The bionic convex domes provide an effective solution to improve the silt erosion for most of the investigated silt-laden conditions by decreasing the erosion rate and the erosion area of the blade. The anti-erosion mechanism was studied combined with large eddy simulation. The analysis shows that the relative velocity of water around the blade surface is changed and the mass flow rate of silt particles hitting the blade is reduced by inducing swirling flows around the bionic convex domes.
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