August 11th, 12:00 PM EDT - 12:45 PM EDT
Technical
Robert Visintainer
Lecture Title: Pumping Rocks: Hydrotransport and the Centrifugal Slurry Pump
Abstract: Centrifugal pumps are one of the most common machines in use worldwide, with a long history dating back to the 17th century. Applications are as varied as the pump designs themselves. In the great majority of cases, their primary purpose is the transport of some fluid, such as water, fuel or other mixtures used in the chemical and food processing industries. In some cases, the fluids may be laden with solids, for example river water, sewage, drainage, or wash water. However, a special class of centrifugal pump exists whose primary function is the transport solids, and where the fluids represent little more than a transport medium, an application sometimes referred to as "hydrotransport”". The pumps that power these systems are called slurry pumps.
Slurry pumps are common in the mineral processing and dredging industries, and as one may imagine, the erosive stresses on their pumping components are severe. The solids range from fine silt to boulders and are often handled at high concentration, since they are the primary focus of transport. They substantially alter pump and pipeline hydraulic behavior, which can be further complicated by entrained gasses or viscous fluids.
In this presentation, we will examine some of the technical challenges encountered in hydrotransport and slurry pump applications and give examples of the design strategies and scientific methods developed over the last 50 years to address them.
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