Research on the solid-liquid two-phase flow model for coarse sand transportation by dredge pumps

Dredge pumps are frequently applied in transporting coarse sands in certain marine engineering projects, which often leads to severe wear issues in flow-passing components such as impellers and volutes. Based on the test data from a model pump designed for transporting high-concentration coarse sand in a large dredge pump, this study employs the Eulerian model to conduct numerical simulations of solid-liquid two-phase flow. Aiming to reduce numerical prediction errors, the study analyzes the impacts of incorporating the lift force model, turbulent dispersion force model, and an enhanced turbulence production model on the numerical calculation results. By overall considering the predictions of head and power, with the same drag force model, the further inclusion of the lift force model brings the predicted performance of the dredge pump closer to the measured results. The turbulent dispersion force has a relatively minor impact on the prediction of flow field characteristics, whereas the incorporation of enhanced turbulence production model significantly improves the uniformity of solid-phase concentration distribution in the pipeline section. The findings of this study can serve as a reference for numerical predictions of two-phase flow fields in dredge pumps transporting high-concentration coarse particles