North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk (Yakutsk, Russia):

Ovchinnikov N. P., Associate Professor, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, ovchinnlar1986@mail.ru

Abrasive mineral slurries at the concentrating plants of ALROSA, a large diamond mining company, are pumped using Warman, KETO and Metso foreign centrifugal slurry pumps, as well as using domestic GrAT series pumps. The actual durability of basic parts (impellers and volutes) of the more expensive foreign slurry pumps, however, does not always necessarily exceed that of the domestic equipment. For example, impellers of GrAT 1800-67 slurry pumps at concentrating plant No. 12 (Udachninsky GOK) proved more durable than those of FAP50A-C pumps manufactured by KETO. In this regard, it may be assumed that impeller durability in any pumping equipment used for transferring abrasive slurries depends not only on the physical and mechanical properties of the material used in the pump design, but also on the characteristics of the slurry pumped. The research establishes the factors that influence the average service life of impellers in slurry pumps at the concentrating plants of ALROSA. A single-factor linear dependence is derived between the average service life of a slurry pump impeller and the weighted average grain size of mechanical impurities contained in the slurry pumped. Accounting for this dependence enables high-probability predictions of impeller durability in pumping equipment at the concentrating plants of ALROSA.

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