Marc Tusenko
R&D Engineer
PTM GmbH
Marc Tusenko is a development engineer at PTM GmbH. His main areas of expertise are in experimental fluid mechanics, non-newtonian fluids and CFD. He uses this skill set to develop new and improve existing mixers for industrial mixing in biogas plants, mining and other applications.
Comparison of Erosive Wear on Composite and Metallic Propellers in Slurry
The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of material, geometry, and particle concentration on the wear behaviour of propellers. Attention was given to the performance of a modified polyamide material called "Physinit" in comparison to stainless steel. Four test series were carried out using a half factorial design of experiments without repetition. The propellers were rotated in an aqueous slurry containing silicon carbide particles at a constant speed of 1493 rpm. The varied factors included propeller material (stainless steel vs. polyamide), geometry (Phantom vs. three-blade), and particle concentration (80 g/l vs. 200 g/l). The primary measured parameters were relative mass loss and change in diameter. Stainless steel showed higher mass loss and greater diameter reduction compared to the Physinit material. Increasing particle concentration led to increased wear. Wear rates were higher for stainless steel across both geometries. Diameter reduction in stainless steel occurred continuously, while Physinit exhibited delayed and lower reduction. Geometry had a noticeable effect on the uniformity of wear, though its overall influence was less pronounced than that of the material. The experimental data indicate that Physinit demonstrates a distinctly different wear behaviour under abrasive conditions compared to stainless steel. Under the given test conditions, the wear rate of the Physinit propeller was significantly lower than that of the stainless-steel propeller