Influence of the Blade Trailing Edge Profile on the Performance and Unsteady Pressure Pulsations in a Low Specific Speed Centrifugal Pump

The role of blade rotational angle in the energy performance and pressure fluctuation of a mixed-flow pump is investigated through an experimental measurement and numerical simulation. The mixed-fl...

Role of blade rotational angle on energy performance and pressure fluctuation of a mixed-flow pump

Effects of modifying the blade trailing edge profile on unsteady pressure pulsations and flow structures in a centrifugal pump

Influence of original and T-shape blade end on performance of a mixed-flow pump is investigated by using experimental measurement and numerical simulation. The new proposed T-shape blade end is for...

Influence of T-shape tip clearance on performance of a mixed-flow pump:

CFD simulation and experimental study of oil viscosity effect on multi-stage electrical submersible pump (ESP) performance

Modern pumps are designed to guarantee a sufficiently large operating range or to satisfy the performance requirements relative to more than one operating point. This study applies trailing-edge (TE) modification method based on TE rounding in the suction surface to widen the operating range of a mixed-flow pump. The effects of TE modification on the performance and internal flow of the mixed-flow pump are investigated through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. Local Euler head distribution is introduced to reveal the pattern of energy growth along the blade-aligned (BA) streamwise location. A pump model with TE modification is tested, and numerical results agree well with experimental data. The results show that TE modification significantly improves pump efficiency in the high flow rate region by more than 10%. The best pattern of normalized local Euler head distribution (NLEHD) is a convex curve of nearly constant growth rate. The overall heads are also improved, and the flow near the exit of the impeller exhibits better uniformity. This finding demonstrates that a small change in the TE of the impeller can influence flow structure in most areas of impeller channels and that the local Euler head distribution is closely related to pump efficiency. TE modification can effectively improve the performance of the mixed-flow pump with high flow rate.

Effect of Trailing-Edge Modification of a Mixed-Flow Pump

In order to study the transient characteristics of a closed-loop pipe system with room temperature water, experiments were carried out based on different pump stopping periods from rate rotational speed to zero. Various stopping periods were realized by changing the rotational inertia of the rotors, controlling the frequency of the motor and braking the shaft. Experimental results of different operating schemes were compared, and transient flow rate of the pipe system and transient characteristics of the pump were analyzed. The influences of the kinetic energy of the loop fluid and pump rotors to the stopping periods were summarized. Results show that rapid change of the pump operating conditions occurs during the stopping period and transient flow rate of the pipe system and characteristics of the pump depend largely on the way of stopping. The kinetic energy stored in the pump can drive the impeller keeping rotating for more time after the motor is shutdown. Due to the kinetic energy stored in the loop pipe, the flow rate does not reach zero immediately after the rotational speed reaches zero. The inertia of pump rotor and fluid inertia affect the impact of fluid flow and the duration of the loop during pump stopping period.

Transient Characteristics of a Closed-Loop Pipe System During Pump Stopping Periods

Currently, relatively large errors are found in numerical results in some low-specific-speed centrifugal pumps with unshrouded impeller because the effect of clearances and holes are not accurately modeled. Establishing an accurate analytical model to improve performance prediction accuracy is therefore necessary. In this paper, a three-dimensional numerical simulation is conducted to predict the performance of a low-specific-speed centrifugal pump, and the modeling, numerical scheme, and turbulent selection methods are discussed. The pump performance is tested in a model pump test bench, and flow rate, head, power and efficiency of the pump are obtained. The effect of taking into consideration the back-out vane passage, clearance, and balance holes is analyzed by comparing it with experimental results, and the performance prediction methods are validated by experiments. The analysis results show that the pump performance can be accurately predicted by the improved method. Ignoring the back-out vane passage in the calculation model of unshrouded impeller is found to generate better numerical results. Further, the calculation model with the clearances and balance holes can obviously enhance the numerical accuracy. The application of disconnect interface can reduce meshing difficulty but increase the calculation error at the off-design operating point at the same time. Compared with the standard k-ɛ, renormalization group k-ɛ, and Spalart-Allmars models, the Realizable k-ɛ model demonstrates the fastest convergent speed and the highest precision for the unshrouded impeller flow simulation. The proposed modeling and numerical simulation methods can improve the performance prediction accuracy of the low-specific-speed centrifugal pumps, and the modeling method is especially suitable for the centrifugal pump with unshrouded impeller.

Shuai Yang

Papers

Effect of Trailing-Edge Modification of a Mixed-Flow Pump

Transient Characteristics of a Closed-Loop Pipe System During Pump Stopping Periods

Investigation of CFD calculation method of a centrifugal pump with unshrouded impeller