Carlos Santolaria

TL;DR: In this article, a numerical simulation of a commercial centrifugal water pump with backward curved blades is presented, where the viscous Navier-Stokes equations are handled with an unsteady calculation and the sliding mesh technique is applied to take into account the impeller-volute interaction.

TL;DR: In this paper, a 3D unsteady flow model is used to correlate the dynamic field with the flow characteristics inside the impeller and volute of a single-stage commercial pump.

TL;DR: In this article, the steady and unsteady radial forces produced by a vaneless centrifugal pump were measured using fast response pressure transducers, and compared with equivalent numerical results from a URANS calculation using the commercial code FLUENT.

TL;DR: In this paper, an approach is presented for the development of a predictive maintenance system for rotor-dynamic pumps, which focuses on the diagnosis of abnormal events related to fluid dynamic operating conditions.

Abstract: A double suction centrifugal machine has been studied, both experimentally and numerically, operating as a pump and as a turbine. Experimentally, the static performance of the machine working as a pump was obtained. These measurements were compared with equivalent numerical results from a URANS calculation. As a second step, the numerical results have been exploited to get detailed information about the flow in both operating modes (pump and turbine). The main goals of the study are, first, the validation of the numerical procedure proposed and second, the possible turbine operation of the impeller, which could point out a wider working range for the machine. The first aspect is handled by detailed analysis in the pump mode, according to previous experience of the research group. The second objective is obtained by using the numerical model to explore the flow fields obtained, when working in an inverse mode. Therefore, the presented results join the use of a numerical methodology and the turbine mode of operation for a centrifugal impeller, providing insight into the flow characteristics. When working as a pump, the flow at the suction side is characterized by the existence of an inlet tongue, which tends to enforce a uniform flow for the nominal conditions. For the turbine mode, flow patterns in the impeller, volute and suction regions are carefully investigated. The influence of the specific geometrical arrangement is also considered for this operation mode.