The effect of sand-clay slurries on the performance of centrifugal pumps

The addition of clay to sand slurries has been found to reduce the pipeline friction losses, thus lowering the pumping head and power consumption. Pump water heads and efficiencies are decreased by the presence of solid particles. Experimental results are presented for a centrifugal pump with an impeller diameter of 0.625 m for three narrowly graded sands with average particle sizes of 0.64, 1.27, and 2.2 mm. Reductions in head and efficiency of up to 30% were observed for sand slurries with volume concentrations of up to 35%. Head and efficiency were lowered by about one-third for sand-clay mixtures with sand to clay mass ratios between 4:1 and 6:1. Comparisons are made with design criteria and a mechanistic model approach based on a prediction of the relative motion of the solids and water in the volute region of the pump.