scholarly journals Experimental Study of a Cavitating Centrifugal Pump During Fast Startups

2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Duplaa ◽  
O. Coutier-Delgosha ◽  
A. Dazin ◽  
O. Roussette ◽  
G. Bois ◽  
...  

The startup of rocket engine turbopumps is generally performed only in a few seconds. It implies that these pumps reach their nominal operating conditions after only a few rotations. During these first rotations of the blades, the flow evolution in the pump is governed by transient phenomena, based mainly on the flow rate and rotation speed evolution. These phenomena progressively become negligible when the steady behavior is reached. The pump transient behavior induces significant pressure fluctuations, which may result in partial flow vaporization, i.e., cavitation. An existing experimental test rig has been updated in the LML Laboratory (Lille, France) for the startups of a centrifugal pump. The study focuses on the cavitation induced during the pump startup. Instantaneous measurement of torque, flow rate, inlet and outlet unsteady pressures, and pump rotation velocity enable to characterize the pump behavior during rapid starting periods. Three different types of fast startup behaviors have been identified. According to the final operating point, the startup is characterized either by a single drop of the delivery static pressure, by several low-frequency drops, or by a water hammer phenomenon that can be observed in both the inlet and outlet of the pump. A physical analysis is proposed to explain these three different types of transient flow behavior.

Author(s):  
Yu-liang Zhang ◽  
Zu-chao Zhu ◽  
Bao-ling Cui ◽  
Yi Li

To explore the transient characteristic of a centrifugal pump with the specific speed of 90 during startup period, the internal three-dimensional unsteady flow was solved by using CFD. Wherein to overcome the difficulty in implement of boundary conditions in numerical simulation, a closed-loop pipe system that includes a centrifugal pump was built to accomplish self-coupling calculation. The results show that at the very beginning of startup, flow rate rises slowly and non-dimensional head coefficient is much higher than quasi-steady value, the quasi-assumption can not be competent for predicting transient effect well. Moreover, the insufficient of energy conversion makes the evolvement of transient flow field lags behind that of quasi-steady flow field, i.e., kinetic energy can’t convert pressure energy in time during acceleration flow period. Rotor-stator interaction makes flow rate present slight fluctuation characteristic under stable operating conditions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Duplaa ◽  
O. Coutier-Delgosha ◽  
A. Dazin ◽  
G. Bois

The start-up of rocket engine turbopumps is generally performed in a few seconds or even less. It implies that these pumps reach their nominal operating conditions after a few rotations only. During the start-up, the flow evolution within the pump is governed by transient phenomena, based mainly on the flow rate and rotation speed increase. Significant pressure fluctuations, which may result in the development of cavitation, are observed. A centrifugal impeller whose transient behavior during start-ups has been detailed in a previous publication is considered. Three different cases of fast start-ups have been identified according the final operating point (Duplaa et al., 2010, “Experimental Study of a Cavitating Centrifugal Pump During Fast Start-Ups,” ASME J. Fluids Eng., 132(2), p. 021301). The aim of this paper is to analyze the evolution during the start-ups of the local amount of vapor in the blade to blade channels of the pump by fast X-ray imaging. This technique has enabled to calculate the time-evolution of the fluid density within the pump, which appears to be correlated with pressure time-evolutions. For each investigated start-up, X-ray measurements have been performed at three different sections of the impeller height. For each investigated start-up and section tested, measurements have been performed for several initial positions of the impeller, to estimate the measurement uncertainty, and to obtain records from different beam angles, like in tomography.


Author(s):  
Yu-Liang Zhang ◽  
Zu-Chao Zhu ◽  
Hua-Shu Dou ◽  
Bao-Ling Cui ◽  
Yi Li ◽  
...  

AbstractTransient performance of pumps during transient operating periods, such as startup and stopping, has drawn more and more attentions recently due to the growing engineering needs. During the startup period of a pump, the performance parameters such as the flow rate and head would vary significantly in a broad range. Therefore, it is very difficult to accurately specify the unsteady boundary conditions for a pump alone to solve the transient flow in the absence of experimental results. The closed-loop pipe system including a centrifugal pump is built to accomplish the self-coupling calculation. The three-dimensional unsteady incompressible viscous flow inside the passage of the pump during startup period is numerically simulated using the dynamic mesh method. Simulation results show that there are tiny fluctuations in the flow rate even under stable operating conditions and this can be attributed to influence of the rotor–stator interaction. At the very beginning of the startup, the rising speed of the flow rate is lower than that of the rotational speed. It is also found that it is not suitable to predict the transient performance of pumps using the calculation method of quasi-steady flow, especially at the earlier period of the startup.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Yan-Juan Zhao ◽  
Yu-Liang Zhang

Centrifugal pump often operates at different working flow rates to meet engineering requirement. To better reveal the transient behavior of centrifugal pump in the process of decreasing flow rate, the finite volume method (FVM), RNG k-ε turbulence model, sliding mesh technology, and user-defined functions (UDF) were employed to simulate the three-dimensional unsteady viscous incompressible flow in a low-specific-speed centrifugal pump during the abrupt valve-off period. The results show that the differences are very obvious between transient and quasi-steady calculations. The velocity is maximum on the wall of hub and shroud, while the velocity is minimum and uniform distribution at middle positions. The transient flow field lags behind the quasi-steady flow field, which may be related to the reasons; namely, kinetic energy cannot convert pressure energy in time.


Author(s):  
Mirko Baratta ◽  
Andrea E. Catania ◽  
Nicola Rapetto ◽  
Alois Fuerhapter ◽  
Matthias Gerlich ◽  
...  

In the last few years, a significant research effort has been made for developing and enhancing Direct Injection (DI) for compressed natural gas (CNG) engines. Several research projects have been promoted by the European Community (EC) in this field with the objective of finding new solutions for the automotive market and also of encouraging a fruitful knowledge exchange among car manufacturers, suppliers and technical universities. This paper concerns part of the research activity that has been carried out by the Politecnico di Torino, AVL List GmbH and Siemens AG within the EC VII Framework Program (FP) InGAS Collaborative Project (CP), aimed at optimizing the control phase of a new injector for CNG direct injection, paying specific attention to its behavior at small injected-fuel amounts, i.e., small energizing times. The CNG injector which was developed within the research project proved to be suitable to be used in a DI SI engine, featuring a pent-roof combustion chamber head and a bowl in piston, with reference to both homogeneous and stratified charge formation. Fuel flow measurements made by AVL on the four-cylinder engine revealed a good linearity between injection duration and fuel mass-flow rate for injection durations above a reference value. In order to improve the injector characterization at short injection durations, an experimental and numerical activity was designed. More specifically, a multidimensional CFD model of the actual injector geometry was built by Politecnico di Torino, and purposely-designed simulation cases were carried out, in which the needle-lift time-history was defined on the basis of experimental measurements made by Siemens. The numerical model was validated on the basis of experimental data concerning the total injected-fuel amount under different conditions. Then, the model was applied in order to evaluate the dynamic flow characteristic by taking also the inner geometry of the injector valve group into account, so as to establish a correlation to the needle lift measurements done by Siemens for injector characterization. In the paper this dynamic behavior of the injector is analyzed, under actual operating conditions, and its impact on the nozzle injection capability is discussed. The simulation results did not show significant oscillations of the stagnation pressure upstream of the nozzle throat section, and thus the resultant mass-flow rate profile is almost proportional to the needle-lift one. As a consequence, in order to characterize the injector flow behavior in the nonlinear region (short injection duration), the measurement of needle lift is sufficient.


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Zhu ◽  
Y. Jaluria

Abstract The flow of chemically reactive non-Newtonian materials, such as bio-polymers and aciylates, in a fully intermeshing, co-rotating twin-screw extruder is numerically investigated. A detailed study of the system transient behavior is carried out. The main transient aspects, including response time, variation of system variables, and instability of operation, are studied for both single- and twin-screw extruders. The effect of a time-dependent variation in the boundary conditions is studied. The coupling due to conduction heat transfer in the screw barrel is found to be very important and is taken into account for single-screw extruders. In the absence of this conjugate coupling, the response time is much shorter. Several other interesting trends are obtained with respect to the dependence of the transient response on the fluid, materials, and operating conditions. Steady state results are obtained at large time. The calculated velocity distributions in the screw channel are compared with experimental results in the literature for steady state flow and good agreement has been obtained. The numerical results show that not all desired operating conditions are feasible. The calculated results for transient transport agree with the few experimental observations available on this system. These results will be useful in the design, control and optimization of polymer extrusion processes.


Author(s):  
Romain Prunières ◽  
Chisachi Kato

Abstract Centrifugal pump performance curves instability, characterized by a local dent, can be the consequence of flow instabilities in rotating or stationary parts. Such flow instabilities often result in abnormal operating conditions, causing severe problems such as increased pressure pulsation, noise and vibration which can damage both pump and system. For the pump to have reliable operation, it is necessary to understand the onset and the mechanism of the phenomenon resulting in performance curves instability. Present paper focuses on performance curves instability of a centrifugal pump of low specific speed (ωs = 0.65, Ns = 1776) and aims at a better understanding of the mechanism leading to the head drop observed during tests at part load. For that purpose, Computation Fluid Dynamic (CFD) was performed using a Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) approach. The geometry used for present research is in fact the first stage of a multi-stage centrifugal pump and is composed of a suction chamber, a closed-type impeller, a vaned diffuser and return guide vanes to next stage (not included). Leakages at wear ring and stage bush were also included in the computed geometry in order to consider their potential influence on pump stability. The occurrence of the instability in CFD is found at a higher flow rate than in the experiments. It is observed that the pre-swirl angle is under-predicted by several degrees which leads to change the impeller operating conditions. Nevertheless, the analysis of the CFD results is still useful to have a better understanding of the onset of the head drop. When the head drops, a switching of low radial and axial velocities at the impeller outlet from the hub side to the shroud side is observed. This change of flow pattern goes along with a strong increase of the diffuser inlet throat recirculation and the development of stall, that impairs pressure recovery between the impeller outlet and the diffuser inlet. As the pump flow rate is further decreased below the head drop flow rate, recirculation at the diffuser throat extend toward the impeller outlet and impact Euler head. Conversely, the pressure recovery from the impeller outlet to the diffuser inlet throat increases again as the flow velocity slowdown can be effective again. Consequently, the pump head increases again.


SPE Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (02) ◽  
pp. 811-833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bailu Teng ◽  
Huazhou Andy Li

Summary Field studies have shown that, if an inclined fracture has a significant inclination angle from the vertical direction or the fracture has a poor growth along the inclined direction, this fracture probably cannot fully penetrate the formation, resulting in a partially penetrating inclined fracture (PPIF) in these formations. It is necessary for the petroleum industry to conduct a pressure-transient analysis on such fractures to properly understand the major mechanisms governing the oil production from them. In this work, we develop a semianalytical model to characterize the pressure-transient behavior of a finite-conductivity PPIF. We discretize the fracture into small panels, and each of these panels is treated as a plane source. The fluid flow in the fracture system is numerically characterized with a finite-difference method, whereas the fluid flow in the matrix system is analytically characterized on the basis of the Green's-function method. As such, a semianalytical model for characterizing the transient-flow behavior of a PPIF can be readily constructed by coupling the transient flow in the fracture and that in the matrix. With the aid of the proposed model, we conduct a detailed study on the transient-flow behavior of the PPIFs. Our calculation results show that a PPIF with a finite conductivity in a bounded reservoir can exhibit the following flow regimes: wellbore afterflow, fracture radial flow, bilinear flow, inclined-formation linear flow, vertical elliptical flow, vertical pseudoradial flow, inclined pseudoradial flow, horizontal-formation linear flow, horizontal elliptical flow, horizontal pseudoradial flow, and boundary-dominated flow. A negative-slope period can appear on the pressure-derivative curve, which is attributed to a converging flow near the wellbore. Even with a small dimensionless fracture conductivity, a PPIF can exhibit a horizontal-formation linear flow. In addition to PPIFs, the proposed model also can be used to simulate the pressure-transient behavior of fully penetrating vertical fractures (FPVFs), partially penetrating vertical fractures (PPVFs), fully penetrating inclined fractures (FPIFs), and horizontal fractures (HFs).


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fu-Jun Wang ◽  
Li-Xia Qu ◽  
Ling-Yan He ◽  
Jiang-Yong Gao

The transient analysis was carried out to investigate the dynamic stress and vibration of volute casing for a large double-suction centrifugal pump by using the transient fluid-structure interaction theory. The flow pulsations at flow rate ranging from 60% to 100% of the nominal flow rate (Qd) were taken as the boundary conditions for FEM analysis of the pump volute casing structure. The results revealed that, for all operating conditions, the maximum stress located at the volute tongue region, whereas the maximum vibration displacement happened close to the shaft hole region. It was also found that the blade passing frequency and its harmonics were dominant in the variations of dynamic stress and vibration displacement. The amplitude of the dominant frequency for the maximum stress detected at 0.6Qdwas 1.14 times that atQd, lower than the related difference observed for pressure fluctuations (3.23 times). This study provides an effective method to quantify the flow-induced structural dynamic characteristics for a large-scale double-suction pump. It can be used to direct the hydraulic and structural design and stable operation, as well as fatigue life prediction for large-scale pumps.


1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (4) ◽  
pp. 841-849 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Tanaka ◽  
H. Tsukamoto

A series of studies on the dynamic characteristics of noncavitating centrifugal pumps were extended to the cavitating case. An experimental study was carried out on the transient behavior of a cavitating centrifugal pump at the sudden opening/closure of the discharge valve. Cavitation behavior in the centrifugal pump was visualized during the transient period by using high speed video camera, and instantaneous pressure and flowrate were measured at the pump suction and discharge section with rotational speed during the transient period. Unsteady pressure, as well as flowrate, was related to the time-dependent cavitation behavior. As a result of the present study, pressure and flowrate fluctuations were found to occur due to oscillating cavitation or water column separation at rapid transient operations.


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