Experimental and numerical investigation on the influence of rotational speed and particle size on wear of hydro turbine steel

The hydro-electric power plants located in the Himalayan region suffer huge economic losses due to erosion occurring in turbine blades. The main cause for the erosion of turbine blades is the presence of high silt concentration in the rivers of Himalayan region. In the present paper the computational fluid dynamics code CFX is used for numerical erosion modelling of a rectangular shaped work-piece of hydro turbine material (ASTM A182 Stainless steel) in the water-sand slurry mixture in a slurry erosive wear tester. The numerical results are validated with experimental data. The rotational speed of the work-piece is varied from 300 to 700 rpm at solid concentration of 20%. The sand particles of three different sizes 100, 200 and 300 mu m are used. It is found that mass loss increases with the increase in rotational speed and size of silt particles. The particles of size 300 mu m have a dominating effect on the mass loss of work-piece at the rotational speed of 700 rpm. It is also observed that erosion results predicted by Grant-Tabakoff erosion model agree well with experimental results. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th International Conference of Materials Processing and Characterization.