Hydraulic characteristics of molten salt pump transporting solid-liquid two-phase medium

Highlights: • The pump performance has been evaluated for several solid entrainment conditions. • The performance of pump containing small solid is higher than those of no solid. • Effect of blade number on the performance of pump was investigated. - Abstract: In this study, a three-dimensional solid-liquid two-phase flow in a molten salt pump was numerically simulated. Numerical solutions were obtained for different numbers of blades (z = 5, 6, and 7), several particle diameters ranging from 0.02 mm to 3 mm, and different particle volume fractions (5%, 10%, 20%, and 30%) at the pump inlet. The standard k-ε model and Eulerian multiphase model were applied to study the steady flow. The computational values agreed reasonably well with the modeling experimental results. The results indicated that the particle diameter (d_s), particle volume fraction at the pump inlet (IPVF), and blade number significantly influence the pump performance. In general, the relationships between the pump performance parameters (H, η) and IPVF are obviously dependent on the particle diameter. Initially, for the smallest particle diameter (d_s), the relationships between pump performance parameters (H, η) and IPVF are linear. As the particle diameter increases, the pump performance parameters (H, η) reduce rapidly with an increase in the IPVF. Furthermore, we found that the performance parameters (H,η) of the pump containing special two-phase flow (d_s ≤ 0.1 mm) were even higher than those of the pump containing single-phase flow. In addition, the effect of the blade number on the pump performance under the two-phase condition was also investigated. The results showed that the pump with seven blades had a better performance than the other two pumps, except under the condition with large solid particles. These findings can be used to improve the performance of a molten salt pump.