Investigation on Centrifugal Pump Performance for Various Nose-Cap Geometries

TLDR: In this article, the various profile of the nose-cap such as linear, quadratic, exponential and power equation curves are derived and the best profile is fabricated and the nozzle is threaded to the shaft.

Abstract: Centrifugal pumps are an inevitable part of modern life, and these devices are significant consumers of electric power. In general, a pump is a mechanical device for moving a fluid from a location to the other location spatially, or from a lower altitude to a higher altitude. In the process industries, more than 90% of pump applications have been covered by centrifugal pumps as it has very few moving parts and is available in a wide range of flow rates and pressure differential. Centrifugal pumps are probably among the most often used machinery in industrial facilities as well as in common life. For technical applications selection of centrifugal pump and proper analysis of pump output parameters such as discharge head and efficiency are important factors to be considered. The performance of a centrifugal pump can be enhanced by optimizing the design of the centrifugal pump. Some design modifications related to parts of a centrifugal pump such as nose-cap improve the performance. They behave similar to a nozzle which increases the velocity of the fluid at the entry of the impeller. In this paper, the various profile of the nose-cap such as linear, quadratic, exponential and power equation curves are derived. Among all these curves the best profile is fabricated and the nozzle is threaded to the shaft. The CFD analysis for the profile is also performed. It is concluded that the overall efficiency of the pump is on an average 2–3% higher for all the three nose-caps when compared to the pump without nose-cap.