EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF EROSIVE WEAR ON THE HIGH CHROME CAST IRON IMPELLER OF SLURRY DISPOSAL PUMP USING RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY

Erosive wear occurs on the impeller and volute casing of the slurry disposal pump due to the impact of the ash particles on the impeller with a high velocity. Due to erosive wear, pump life become very short. The service life of centrifugal pump, handling slurry can be increased by reducing the erosive wear. In the present work, the experimental investigation of erosive wear has been carried out on the high speed slurry erosion tester to understand the effects of the ash concentration in slurry, rotational speed of the pump impeller and ash particle size on erosive wear. The erosive wear behaviour of high chrome cast iron was investigated by Response surface methodology (RSM). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for statistical analysis and the modeled values for the response were obtained with the help of modeled equation. The result shows that the ash concentration in slurry and kinetic energy of the moving particles highly contributes to erosive wear of pump impeller as compared to the ash particle size.