Numerical and experimental study in pressure pulsation and vibration of a two-stage centrifugal pump under cavitating condition

Author(s):  
Shuwei Zhang ◽  
Ruiqi Tian ◽  
Kejin Ding ◽  
Hongxun Chen ◽  
Zheng Ma

Instantaneous cavitating turbulent flow in a two-stage centrifugal pump with diffuser was simulated using a hybrid RANS/LES model and rotating corrected-based cavitation model in this paper. The predicted results of numerical simulation were in good agreement with the experimental results. The mechanism of pressure pulsation in the two-stage centrifugal pump was discussed. Some representative main frequencies of pressure pulsation such as main blade passing frequency, sub-blade passing frequency and intersection frequency of impeller blade and diffuser blade were analyzed systematically. Uncertainty estimation was used to ensure the accuracy of experimental results and it was also used to analyze the variation of pressure pulsation and vibration signals at different positions with the intensification of cavitation degree in the centrifugal pump. According to the results of uncertainty estimation, the center frequency of 1/3 octave band and the root mean square method were used to evaluate the energy change of the pressure pulsation signals and vibration signals at different frequency bands as the cavitation number decreases. The characteristics of pressure pulsation and vibration signals at different positions were analyzed in different frequency bands.

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Huang ◽  
Guitao Zeng ◽  
Bo Qian ◽  
Peng Wu ◽  
Peili Shi ◽  
...  

The pressure fluctuation inside centrifugal pumps is one of the main causes of hydro-induced vibration, especially at the blade-passing frequency and its harmonics. This paper investigates the feature of blade-passing frequency excitation in a low-specific-speed centrifugal pump in the perspective of local Euler head distribution based on CFD analysis. Meanwhile, the relation between local Euler head distribution and pressure fluctuation amplitude is observed and used to explain the mechanism of intensive pressure fluctuation. The impeller blade with ordinary trailing edge profile, which is the prototype impeller in this study, usually induces wake shedding near the impeller outlet, making the energy distribution less uniform. Because of this, the method of reducing pressure fluctuation by means of improving Euler head distribution uniformity by modifying the impeller blade trailing edge profile is proposed. The impeller blade trailing edges are trimmed in different scales, which are marked as model A, B, and C. As a result of trailing edge trimming, the impeller outlet angles at the pressure side of the prototype of model A, B, and C are 21, 18, 15, and 12 degrees, respectively. The differences in Euler head distribution and pressure fluctuation between the model impellers at nominal flow rate are investigated and analyzed. Experimental verification is also conducted to validate the CFD results. The results show that the blade trailing edge profiling on the pressure side can help reduce pressure fluctuation. The uniformity of Euler head circumferential distribution, which is directly related to the intensity of pressure fluctuation, is improved because the impeller blade outlet angle on the pressure side decreases and thus the velocity components are adjusted when the blade trailing edge profile is modified. The results of the investigation demonstrate that blade trailing edge profiling can be used in the vibration reduction of low specific impellers and in the engineering design of centrifugal pumps.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 395-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianbei Huang ◽  
Yaojun Li ◽  
Zhuqing Liu ◽  
Wei Yang

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to obtain a better understanding of the rotor–stator interaction in the vaneless region of a centrifugal pump. Design/methodology/approach A third-order sub-grid scale (SGS) model containing the rotation rate tensor named the dynamic cubic non-linear model (DCNM) is used for simulating the flow field in a centrifugal pump with a vaned diffuser. The pressure coefficient and velocity distributions are compared with the experimental data. Focusing on the vaneless region, the pressure pulsation, Reynolds stress pulsation and Reynolds stress transport equation are analyzed. Findings The comparison of the calculation results with the experimental data indicates that the DCNM can accurately capture the distributions of pressure and velocity in the vaneless region. Based on the instantaneous pressure signals, the pressure pulsation is analyzed to show that in the vaneless region, the dominant frequency near the impeller is twice the blade passing frequency, whereas it is equal to the blade passing frequency near the diffuser. Further exploration of the Reynolds stress pulsation shows the correlation between the two variables. Additionally, the extreme low frequency of Reynolds stress near the diffuser is found to be related to the rotation instability. To explore the turbulence characteristics in the vaneless region, the Reynolds stress transportation equation is studied. In the vaneless region, the rotation term of the Reynolds stress transport equation is negligible compared to the production term, although the rotation instability is obvious near the diffuser. The production of the Reynolds stress plays the role of redistributing the energy from the uu component to the vv component, except for the region near the impeller outlet. Originality/value The third-order SGS model DCNM has proved to be promising in simulating the rotor–stator interaction. The analysis of the rotation instability and the Reynolds stress transport equation shed light on the further understanding of the rotor–stator interaction.


Author(s):  
Ye Yuan ◽  
Shouqi Yuan ◽  
Lingdi Tang

In this article, to improve the vibration characteristics of a high-speed centrifugal pump, two new types of complex impeller were designed for replacing the original long-blade impeller. The experimental apparatus of pump vibration was designed and used to test the vibration signals of the model pump with the original impeller in frequency field. The vibration amplitude of 0.12 mm/s2 is observed on the shaft rotating frequency, while the amplitudes of 0.04 mm/s2, 0.14 mm/s2, and 0.2 mm/s2 respectively on the conditions of 0.8 QN, QN, and 1.2 QN appear on the impeller blade passing frequency. The computational fluid dynamics method was used to study internal flow characteristics in the pumps with three impellers for mitigating the pump vibration. Steady pressure nephogram shows big pressure difference existed in the complex-impeller pump, which means that the complex impeller can provide the high-lift water. Addition of the splitter blade can make the pressure-fluctuation amplitude of model pump to reduce obviously by the unsteady time–frequency analyses. Furthermore, two complex impellers were machined and used to conduct the contrast experiment on the vibration characteristics between the pumps with the original impeller and complex impeller. The results reveal that the water head of pump with the complex impeller is higher than that of the original pump, which verifies the simulated results. Meanwhile, the complex impeller has a positive effect on the decrease of pump vibration on the frequency domain, especially on the blade passing frequency the vibration amplitudes decrease by 0.08 mm/s2.


Author(s):  
Yuan Zhang ◽  
Yongxue Zhang ◽  
Jinya Zhang ◽  
Hucan Hou

Pressure pulsation caused by unsteady flow plays one of the most important roles in the stable operation of centrifugal pumps. Numerical simulation method of LES (Large Eddy Simulation) with WALE model has been used to calculate the unsteady flow in IS150-125-250 centrifugal pump passages. Three groups monitoring points distributed on 8 cross sections in different radial, circumferential, axial directions were set. And pressure pulsation in volute with different flow rates, radial distance, circumferential angles and axial distance was studied. Changing of the maximal pressure pulsation amplitude on monitoring points has been obtained by time and frequency domain analysis. The research demonstrated the maximum amplitude of pressure pulsation is located at the volute tongue, and its magnitude changes with flow rates at each monitoring point. The dominant frequency of pressure pulsation in the volute is equal to the blade passing frequency and the sub-dominant frequencies are also related to the blade passing frequency. The periodicities of circumferential pressure pulsations at different monitoring points in the volute are similar. More deviation of design flow rate results in larger pressure pulsation amplitude. Increasing radius will weaken pressure pulsation amplitude while closing to the wall of volute can strengthen the pressure pulsation. The research of pressure pulsation in volute will show great help in hydraulic design of centrifugal pump to realize longer component life, less vibration and more stable operation.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Al-Qutub ◽  
A. Khalifa ◽  
Y. Khulief

It has been recognized that the pressure pulsation excited by rotor-stator interaction in large pumps is strongly influenced by the radial gap between impeller and volute diffusers/tongues and the geometry of impeller blade at exit. This fluid-structure interaction phenomenon, as manifested by the pressure pulsation, is the main cause of flow-induced vibrations at the blade-passing frequency. In the present investigation, the effects of the radial gap and flow rate on pressure fluctuations, vibration, and pump performance are investigated experimentally for two different impeller designs. One impeller has a V-shaped cut at the blade's exit, while the second has a straight exit (without the V-cut). The experimental findings showed that the high vibrations at the blade-passing frequency are primarily raised by high pressure pulsation due to improper gap design. The existence of V-cut at blades exit produces lower pressure fluctuations inside the pump while maintaining nearly the same performance. The selection of proper radial gap for a given impeller-volute combination results in an appreciable reduction in vibration levels.


Author(s):  
Ning Zhang ◽  
Minguan Yang ◽  
Bo Gao ◽  
Zhong Li

Vibration in centrifugal pump still remains a tough problem to solve. Many studied have been done to find the relationship between hydraulic design and vibration. Both experiments and numerical simulation methods have been proposed to make clear the influence of pump parameters related to vibration. It is evident that unsteady phenomena in centrifugal pump are the main factors causing vibration. Also motor-stator interaction of impeller and volute keeps predominant role considering hydraulic factors. Till now almost all reported researches consider pump geometry parameters, but the shape of volute is rarely proposed. To reduce interaction between impeller and volute tongue, a special volute with slope diffuser section is put forward in this paper. The relative position of volute tongue changes compared to the conventional spiral volute. Thus the effect of flow field striking with volute tongue can be receded effectively, and vibration will be reduced. As the developing of computer technology, it is possible for us to achieve the unsteady flow field inner pump by using numerical simulation methods. A commercial software Fluent was adopted to analyze pressure pulsation and radial load of model pump. Slant angle and clearance rate were optimized considering pressure magnitude. It is observed that pressure amplitude at blade passing frequency achieve the lowest level at slant angle 15°. Pressure magnitude decreases significantly with the increasing of clearance, but limited to radial size of volute, it is suggested to be in the range of 0.134∼0.250. Several monitor points are selected along the volute to have overall understanding of pressure pulsation characteristics. Pressure pulsation at blade passing frequency keeps the predominant in motor-stator interaction. Amplitude of both pressure and radial load increase rapidly when pump operating at off designed conditions.


This paper discusses the use of Maximum Correlation kurtosis deconvolution (MCKD) method as a pre-processor in fast spectral kurtosis (FSK) method in order to find the compound fault characteristics of the bearing, by enhancing the vibration signals. FSK only extracts the resonance bands which have maximum kurtosis value, but sometimes it might possible that faults occur in the resonance bands which has low kurtosis value, also the faulty signals missed due to noise interference. In order to overcome these limitations FSK used with MCKD, MCKD extracts various faults present in different resonance frequency bands; also detect the weak impact component, as MCKD also dealt with strong background noise. By obtaining the MCKD parameters like, filter length & deconvolution period, we can extract the compound fault feature characteristics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 168781402199811
Author(s):  
Beibei Li ◽  
Qiao Zhao ◽  
Huaiyi Li ◽  
Xiumei Liu ◽  
Jichao Ma ◽  
...  

To study the vibration characteristics of the poppet valve induced by cavitation, the signal analysis method based on the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method was studied experimentally. The component induced by cavitation was separated from the vibration signals through the EEMD method. The results show that the IMF2 component has the largest amplitude and energy of all components. The root mean square (RMS) value, peak value of marginal spectrum, and center frequency of marginal spectrum of the IMF2 component were studied in detail. The RMS value and the peak value of the marginal spectrum decrease with a decrease of cavitation intensity. The center frequency of marginal spectrum is between 12 kHz and 20 kHz, and the center frequency first increases and then decreases with a decrease of cavitation intensity. The change rate of the center frequency also decreases with an increase of inlet pressure.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 168781402199811
Author(s):  
Wu Xianfang ◽  
Du Xinlai ◽  
Tan Minggao ◽  
Liu Houlin

The wear-ring abrasion can cause performance degradation of the marine centrifugal pump. In order to study the effect of front and back wear-ring clearance on a pump, test and numerical simulation were used to investigate the performance change of a pump. The test results show that the head and efficiency of pump decrease by 3.56% and 9.62% respectively at 1.0 Qd due to the wear-ring abrasion. Under 1.0 Qd, with the increase of the front wear-ring the vibration velocity at pump foot increases from 0.4 mm/s to 1.0 mm/s. The axis passing frequency (APF) at the measuring points increases significantly and there appears new characteristic frequency of 3APF and 4APF. The numerical simulation results show that the front wear-ring abrasion affects the flow at the inlet of the front chamber of the pump and impeller passage. And the back wear-ring abrasion has obvious effect on the flow in the back chamber of the pump and impeller passage, while the multi-malfunction of the front wear-ring abrasion and back wear-ring abrasion has the most obvious effect on the flow velocity and flow stability inside pump. The pressure pulsation at Blade Passing Frequency (BPF) of the three schemes all decrease with the increase of the clearance.


Author(s):  
Ning Zhang ◽  
Bo Gao ◽  
Chao Li ◽  
Dan Ni ◽  
Guoping Li

Effects of the staggered blades on unsteady pressure pulsations of a centrifugal pump with a specific speed ns=147 are investigated by the numerical simulation method. The obtained results are compared with the original blades. To clarify the resulting effects, eight monitoring points are used to extract pressure signals at three typical working conditions, and component at the blade passing frequency fBPF is emphasized. Results show that the pump efficiency and head will be reduced by the staggered blades, and at the nominal flow rate, the reduction is about 1.5% from comparison with the original blades. For all the eight points, the staggered blades contribute to the reduction of pressure amplitudes at fBPF when the pump works at three flow rates. The averaged reduction is 15.5% at the nominal flow rate. However, the negative effect on the second harmonic of fBPF will be caused by the staggered blades, and the corresponding pressure amplitude will increase at 2fBPF. It means that the pressure pulsation energy will be redistributed among the discrete components in pressure spectrum by the staggered blades. From the TKE distribution, it is found that the TKE values on the blade pressure side will be significantly affected by the staggered blades.


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