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How does the wear resistance of a material affect the service life of a multistage pump?

Time： 2025-05-10

Wear resistance of the material on the service life of multi-stage pumps is multi-dimensional, the core of which is to maintain the structural integrity of the pump body and performance stability through resistance to media scouring, particle abrasion and other physical effects. The following is an analysis of the wear mechanism, material properties, practical impact and optimisation strategies:
Types and Mechanisms of Wear in Multi-stage Pump Operation
1. Main types of wear
Abrasive wear: solid particles (such as sand, slag, fibre) in the medium flow with the fluid at high speed, which produce cutting and scraping effects on the pump body flow parts (impeller, pump casing, guide vane), forming grooves or pits.
Erosion wear: high-speed fluid (especially with gas-liquid two-phase flow) continued impact on the pump body surface, resulting in material fatigue off, commonly found in the impeller inlet, worm shell bends and other flow rate changes in the region.
Cavitation wear: When the local pressure in the pump is lower than the liquid vaporisation pressure, bubbles are generated and ruptured, causing high-frequency impacts (similar to ‘micro-explosion’) on the metal surface, forming honeycomb pits.
Contact wear: Wear caused by friction when the pump body and other parts (such as shaft sleeve, sealing ring) move relative to each other or when the assembly clearance is too small, commonly found on sealing surfaces and bearing fits.
2. Progressive effects of wear on pump performance
Initial stage: surface roughness increases, fluid resistance increases, resulting in a decrease in pump efficiency (about 1%~5%).
Middle stage: the gap between the over-flow parts is enlarged (such as the gap between the impeller and the pump casing), the internal backflow is aggravated, the head and flow rate are attenuated, and the vibration noise is increased.
Later stage: the wall thickness of the pump body is thinned, the structural strength is reduced, which may cause cracks, perforation, and even lead to serious failures such as impeller stalling and shaft bending.

Keywords： How does the wear resistance of a material affect the service life of a multistage pump?