Study of the effect of cavitation upon the wheels of different types of materials for pump

Laboratoire de Mobilisation et de Valorisation des Ressources en Eau (LMVR-Eau), École Nationale Supérieure d’Hydraulique (ENSH), BP. 31, 09000 Blida, Algeria

^a Corresponding author: okhodjet@yahoo.fr

Received: 23 January 2013
Accepted: 28 June 2013

Abstract

The study of the phenomenon of cavitation of centrifugal pumps remains of a great importance in the field of construction as well as in the field of installation of pumps in pumping stations. In fact, with the consequences it engenders: noise, vibration, erosion and loss of efficiency, it provokes, on the one hand, a progressive degradation of the performance of the machine and, on the other hand, an increase in the costs of the maintenance of installation (a compromise between the functioning period and cost of exploitation), in addition to the loss of efficiency of pumps and the resistance of different materials to the effects of the phenomenon of cavitation. Among the techniques and methods of protecting the parts of pumps is the cladding of the parts with composite plastic materials for the purpose of increasing the resistibility and protecting the parts from the effects of cavitation. Relevant to this, our work aims at analysing this problem with the intention of preserving the efficiency of a pump by limiting the effects of cavitation through an experimental study that has been realized in a laboratory. As such, wheels of different materials are tested under conditions of cavitation taking into consideration the three types of metals used in the manufacture of the wheel, and this regarding the study of resistibility of each material subject to the effects of the phenomenon aforementioned. Thus, this present work consists in experimentally studying the physical impact of cavitational erosion upon the hydrodynamic behavior and the performances of centrifugal pumps, and that affects the weight of different wheels. This phenomenon can be obtained only through measurement: loss of efficiency that can have repercussions for the characteristics of functioning as well as the mechanical behavior.