An Experimental and Computational Study of the Erosion in Submersible Pumps and the Development of a Methodology for Selecting Appropriate Protective Coatings

Solid Particle Erosion is one of the major problems in pump industry, since operation in erosive environment could cause performance alterations of pumps with consequent increased maintenance and running costs, mainly due to the lower efficiency. The research work aimed to study the erosion phenomenon in vertical multistage submersible pumps and develop new coatings as means to prolong their operating life through the reduction of the erosion rate. The mechanical properties of various coatings were examined using nano-indentations, impact tests, 3D-surface topography and Finite Element Analysis. Following a computational performance analysis of a pump stage using CFD software was completed and the experimental results were utilized to calculate the erosion factor k which has been introduced in the Finnie Erosion Model to computationally determine the erosion rate of the pump stage.Copyright © 2009 by ASME