Design and development of high-velocity slurry erosion test rig using CFD

Abstract

Slurry erosion (SE) is commonly observed in almost all kinds of components and machineries involved in fluid (liquid) transfer and delivery. During design and development phase of these components, test rigs are usually required to evaluate their performance; however, only few detailed designs of test rigs are available for SE investigations. Among the existing designs of SE test rigs, most of them belong to rotary type. In the present study, design of a new type of SE test rig has been proposed, which is simpler in construction and working. This newly designed test rig could possibly eliminate some of the limitations (velocity-concentration interdependence and lack of acceleration distance) found in the existing set-ups. Calibration of the test rig was done for jet velocity and erodent concentration. Commissioning of the rig was undertaken by evaluating the effect of operating parameters (concentration and impingement angle) on the erosion rates of aluminum and cast iron. Results show that the rig was able to capture the traditional responses of ductile and brittle erosion behaviors being observed for these materials. Repeatability of the test rig was ensured, and the results were found to be within the acceptable error limits.