Effects of Volute Curvature on Performance of a Low Specific-Speed Centrifugal Pump at Design and Off-Design Conditions

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamed Alemi ◽  
Seyyed Ahmad Nourbakhsh ◽  
Mehrdad Raisee ◽  
Amir Farhad Najafi

The effects of the volute geometry on the head, efficiency, and radial force of a low specific-speed centrifugal pump were investigated focusing on off-design conditions. This paper is divided into three parts. In the first part, the three-dimensional flow inside the pump with rectangular volute was simulated using three well-known turbulence models. Simulation results were compared with the available experimental data, and an acceptable agreement was obtained. In the second part, two volute design methods, namely, the constant velocity and the constant angular momentum were investigated. Obtained results showed that in general the constant velocity method gives more satisfactory performance. In the third part, three volutes with different cross section and diffuser shape were designed. In general, it was found that circular cross section volute with radial diffuser provides higher head and efficiency. Moreover, the minimum radial force occurs at higher flowrate in circular volute geometry comparing to rectangular cross section volute.

Author(s):  
Hamid Reza Nazif ◽  
Hassan Basirat Tabrizi ◽  
Farhad A Farhadpour

Three-dimensional, transient turbulent particulate flow in an FCC riser is modeled using an Eulerian/Granular approach. The turbulence in the gas phase is described by a modified realizable (kg-?g) closure model and the kinetic theory of granular flow (KTGF) is employed for the particulate phase. Separate simulations are conducted for a rectangular and a cylindrical riser with similar dimensions. The model predictions are validated against experimental data of Sommerfeld et al (2002) and also compared with the previously reported LES-KTGF simulations of Hansen et al (2003) for the rectangular riser. The (kg-?g)-KTGF model does not perform as well as the LES-KTGF model for the riser with a rectangular cross section. This is because, unlike the more elaborate LES-KTGF model, the simpler (kg-?g)-KTGF model cannot capture the large scale secondary circulations induced by anisotropic turbulence at the corners of the rectangular riser. In the cylindrical geometry, however, the (kg-?g)-KTGF model gives good prediction of the data and is a viable alternative to the more complex LES-KTGF model. This is not surprising as the circulations in the riser with a circular cross section are due to the curvature of the walls and not due to the presence of sharp corners.


Author(s):  
Rouhollah Torabi ◽  
S. Ahmad Nourbakhsh

The objective of this paper is to develop the shape of an existing volute so that the radial forces in off-design condition become minimum. For this purpose 3-D inverse design method based on the 3-D viscous flow calculations was applied to re-design the geometry of the volute of a low specific speed pump. Various aspects of the geometry change independently to achieve the best one which produces less radial force in off design conditions. Measurements included time-averaged values of velocity and static pressure at a large number of locations in the volute.


2012 ◽  
Vol 152-154 ◽  
pp. 935-939 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Fu ◽  
Shou Qi Yuan ◽  
Rong Sheng Zhu

In order to study the rules of pressure fluctuation and the radial force under different positions in a centrifugal pump with low specific speed, and to find the relationship between each other, the three-dimensional ,unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-stokes equations with shear stress transport turbulent models were solved. The pressure fluctuation was obtained. The results showed that the pressure fluctuations were visible. The pressure fluctuations in the volute were relatively low at the design flow rate condition. The blade passing frequency dominates the pressure fluctuations, high frequency contents were found on the outlet of impeller but no high frequency information occured in casing. The radial force on the impeller was unsteady especially at the small flow rate.


Author(s):  
M DaqiqShirazi ◽  
R Torabi ◽  
A Riasi ◽  
SA Nourbakhsh

In this paper, the flow in the impeller sidewall gap of a low specific speed centrifugal pump is analyzed to study the effect of wear ring clearance and the resultant through-flow on flow field in this cavity and investigate the overall efficiency of the pump. Centrifugal pumps are commonly subject to a reduction in the flow rate and volumetric efficiency due to abrasive liquids or working conditions, since the wear rings are progressively worn, the internal leakage flow is increased. In the new operating point, the overall efficiency of the pump cannot be predicted simply by using the pump characteristic curves. The flow field is simulated with the use of computational fluid dynamics and the three-dimensional full Navier–Stokes equations are solved using CFX software. In order to verify the numerical simulations, static pressure field in volute casing and pump performance curves are compared with the experimental measurements. The results show that, for the pump with minimum wear ring clearance, the disk friction efficiency is the strongest factor that impairs the overall efficiency. Therefore, when the ring clearance is enlarged more than three times, although volumetric efficiency decreases effectively but the reduction in overall efficiency is remarkably smaller due to improvement in the disk friction losses.


2020 ◽  
Vol 143 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Baoling Cui ◽  
Yingbin Zhang ◽  
Yakun Huang

Abstract Unsteady pressure pulsation and fluid force induced by flow instabilities in the centrifugal pump is an important cause of vibration, which is detrimental to the safe operation of the pump. In this study, we numerically investigated the pressure pulsation and radial force in a low-specific-speed centrifugal pump by using the detached-eddy simulation method. We also performed a vibration displacement experiment on the shaft of the centrifugal pump. The vortex identification method was introduced to clarify the internal correlation between unsteady flow structures with pressure pulsations. The results showed that the pressure pulsations at the impeller outlet were closely associated with the periodic vortex shedding from the blade pressure surface. The rotor–stator interaction between a relatively big trailing vortex core and volute tongue generated larger pressure pulsation and radial force in the pump at a low flow rate. Under a large flow rate, the trailing vortex core was easily broken and dispersed, and this resulted in smaller pressure pulsation and radial force compared with that at a low flow rate. Under the design flow rate, the pressure pulsation intensity and the radial force in the impeller were smaller than that under the off-design flow rate. Compared with the spectra between the radial force on the impeller and radial displacement on the shaft, they both presented higher amplitude at the shaft frequency. The vibration of the pump shaft was closely related to the radial force on the impeller.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1070-1072 ◽  
pp. 1957-1962 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Xin Jin ◽  
Wen Wu Song ◽  
Fu Jie

The effects of blade thickness on impeller performance is seldom considered when design the low specific speed centrifugal pump and only considered crowding coefficient when use the speed coefficient method calculate the head of the impeller was designed. It was didn't consider the fundamental relationship how leaf thickness and low specific speed centrifugal impeller performance effect each other. The three-dimensional of flow area would have large influence if the leaf thickness changes . Here the best true thickness of the low specific speed centrifugal impeller blade was obtained though study how the thickness of blade influence on the performance of low specific speed centrifugal pump.


2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip Limbach ◽  
Romuald Skoda

Three-dimensional (3D) simulations with ansys cfx 16.1 as well as measurements of the cavitating flow in a low specific speed centrifugal pump (nq = 12 min−1) are performed for different operation conditions and varying surface roughness. Surface roughness is considered by wall functions in the flow simulations. Good agreement between measured and calculated head is achieved for noncavitating flow. Net positive suction head (NPSH3%) rises toward overload due to incidence, flow separation, and vapor zones at the volute tongue. The NPSH3% rise is slightly higher for rough walls according to measurements and significantly overestimated by the wall function approach, irrespective of the roughness level in the simulation. A low-Reynolds number approach at the volute tongue leads to a more accurate prediction of NPSH3% than wall functions, at the cost of high computational effort.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document