Performance Characteristics of Centrifugal Pumps When Handling Non-Newtonian Homogeneous Slurries

Author(s):  
C I Walker ◽  
A Goulas

The change in performance characteristics of centrifugal pumps when handling fine granular or homogeneous type non-Newtonian slurries has been investigated using two different slurry pumps handling mixtures of coal/water and kaolin/water. A test loop was used which allowed pump performance to be determined at various pump speeds, with many different mixture concentrations and rheologies. The test work indicated two main changes in the pump performance compared to the water characteristics: (i) a large drop in pump developed head at low flowrates (creating an unstable curve), and; (ii) a reduction in the pump efficiency at flowrates near the best efficiency point. The results show that the pump performance is dependent on the slurry's rheological properties, with pump Reynolds number giving generally good correlation with the change in performance. Methods of performance correlation used for Newtonian fluids were found to give good results provided that a suitable value for the viscosity could be chosen.

Author(s):  
K A Kazim ◽  
B Maiti ◽  
P Chand

Centrifugal pumps are being used increasingly for transportation of slurries through pipelines. To design a slurry handling system it is essential to have a knowledge of the effects of suspended solids on the pump performance. A new correlation to predict the head reduction factor for centrifugal pumps handling solids has been developed. This correlation takes into account the individual effect of particle size, particle size distribution, specific gravity and concentration of solids on the centrifugal pump performance characteristics. The range of validity of the correlation has been verified by experiment and by using experimental data available from the literature. The present correlation shows better agreement with the experimental data than existing correlations.


2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 670-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. Gu¨lich

A procedure has been developed to predict the effects of roughness and Reynolds number on the change in efficiency from a model or baseline to a prototype pump (“efficiency scaling”). The analysis of individual losses takes into account different roughnesses of impeller, diffuser/volute, impeller side disks, and casing walls in the impeller side rooms. The method also allows to predict the effect of roughness and Reynolds number on the hydraulic efficiency. The calculations are based on physical models but the weighting of impeller versus diffuser/volute roughness and the fraction of scalable losses within impeller and diffuser/volute are determined empirically from the analysis of tests with industrial pumps. The fraction of scalable impeller/diffuser/volute losses is found to decrease with growing specific speed. Roughness effects in the diffuser/volute are stronger than in the impeller, but the dominance of the stator over the rotor decreases with increasing specific speed. The procedure includes all flow regimes from laminar to turbulent and from hydraulically smooth to fully rough. It is validated by tests with viscosities between 0.2 to 3000 cSt and Reynolds numbers between 1500 and 108. The hydraulic losses depend on the patterns of roughness, near-wall turbulence, and the actual velocity distribution in the hydraulic passages. These effects—which are as yet not amenable to analysis—limit the accuracy of any efficiency prediction procedure for decelerated flows.


Author(s):  
Susanta K. Das

Centrifugal pumps vane geometry plays an important role in pump’s overall performance. Thus, to know the impeller vane geometry effects on the performance of a centrifugal pump are essential from pump’s design point of view. In this study, an experimental investigation is carried out to judge the impeller vane geometry effects on the performance of a centrifugal pump. The performance of three different impeller vane geometries is evaluated in this investigation. To acquire pump performance and characteristics curves, inlet and outlet valves were manually adjusted and the pump’s rpm were varied remotely through computer control. The pressure data were obtained via installed flow rotameter for different flow rates with constant pump speed – 1800 rpm. Experimental data were used to calculate different physical parameters, such as the pump head, water horsepower — the power added to the fluid, power input to the pump–brake horse power, and pump efficiency for each of impeller vane geometries. The pump’s performance curves and the system curves were then plotted for each of the vane geometries. The results show that the pump performance as well as efficiency varies significantly for each of the impeller vane geometries. The results help to understand how to determine appropriate operating conditions and design parameters for different impeller vane geometries for obtaining optimized pump performance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-35
Author(s):  
Adam Hafizar Pohan

This study was conducted to identify the performance of centrifugal pump series configuration and parallel configuration experimentally and Ansys simulation. In the previous study, the performance of centrifugal pumps was calculated by varying the valve opening. In this study researchers varied motor rotation of 1000 rpm, 1200 rpm, 1400 rpm, 1600 rpm and 1800 rpm with open valve 100%. The results show that series configuration has higher head value than parallel configuration. While the parallel configuration has a higher capacity value than the series configuration. The highest pump efficiency for this pump performance test is in series configuration of 1800 rpm is 83.4% for experimental and 85% for simulation. While the lowest pump efficiency is in parallel configuration pumps of 1800 rpm with an efficiency 14.1% for experimental and 15.5% for simulation.


Author(s):  
Linda Sadik ◽  
Badih Jawad ◽  
Munther Y. Hermez ◽  
Liping Liu

Abstract Optimizing the high efficiency design of centrifugal pumps requires a detailed understanding of the internal flow. The prediction of the flow inside the pump can be acquired by understanding the rotatory motion and the three-dimensional shape of the impellers, as well as its fundamental unsteady behavior. The flow inside a centrifugal pump is three-dimensional, unsettled and always associated with secondary flow structures. When a centrifugal pump operates under low flow rates, a secondary flow, known as recirculation, starts to begin. Inside this, the separation of flow increases, which creates vortices and cause local pressure to decrease, which induces cavitation. This phenomenon of recirculation will increase the Net Positive Suction Head Required (NPSHR). Improving the suction performance continues to remain a vital and continuous topic in the development and application of centrifugal pumps. In this research, the focal point is to enhance the pump suction performance under low flow rates by modifying the impeller design. This research entails a numerical simulation investigation on the addition of three different designs, each consisting of two cylindrical disks at the impeller inlet suction. It is hypothesized that these modifications will assist suppressing the recirculation phenomenon. The turbulent flow within the centrifugal pump was analyzed by applying the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations and the k–ϵ equations for turbulence modelling. The computational domain consists of the inlet, impeller, diffuser and outlet. Analysis of ΔP, torque data and pump efficiency was conducted. The application of CFD solvers to predict pump performance resulted in reduced prices for testing as well as pump development time. The numerical simulation concluded that placing 3-D multi-cylindrical disks at the impeller inlet section improved the centrifugal pump performance under low flow rates. The model design 1 resulted in a pump efficiency improvement of about 5% at low flow rates by lowering the amount of flow leaking back (re-circulation) through the internal suction.


Machines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Khaled Alawadhi ◽  
Bashar Alzuwayer ◽  
Tareq Ali Mohammad ◽  
Mohammad H. Buhemdi

Since centrifugal pumps consume a mammoth amount of energy in various industrial applications, their design and optimization are highly relevant to saving maximum energy and increasing the system’s efficiency. In the current investigation, a centrifugal pump has been designed and optimized. The study has been carried out for the specific application of transportation of slurry at a flow rate of 120 m3/hr to a head of 20 m. For the optimization process, a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) and response surface methodology (RSM) have been employed. The process is based on the mean line design of the pump. It utilizes six geometric parameters as design variables, i.e., number of vanes, inlet beta shroud, exit beta shroud, hub inlet blade draft, Rake angle, and the impeller’s rotational speed. The objective functions employed are pump power, hydraulic efficiency, volumetric efficiency, and pump efficiency. In this reference, five different software packages, i.e., ANSYS Vista, ANSYS DesignModeler, response surface optimization software, and ANSYS CFX, were coupled to achieve the optimized design of the pump geometry. Characteristic maps were generated using simulations conducted for 45 points. Additionally, erosion rate was predicted using 3-D numerical simulations under various conditions. Finally, the transient behavior of the pump, being the highlight of the study, was evaluated. Results suggest that the maximum fluctuation in the local pressure and stresses on the cases correspond to a phase angle of 0°–30° of the casing that in turn corresponds to the maximum erosion rates in the region.


2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (4) ◽  
pp. 755-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasushi Tatebayashi ◽  
Kazuhiro Tanaka ◽  
Toshio Kobayashi

The authors have been investigating the various characteristics of screw-type centrifugal pumps, such as pressure fluctuations in impellers, flow patterns in volute casings, and pump performance in air-water two-phase flow conditions. During these investigations, numerical results of our investigations made it clear that three back flow regions existed in this type of pump. Among these, the back flow from the volute casing toward the impeller outlet was the most influential on the pump performance. Thus the most important factor to achieve higher pump performance was to reduce the influence of this back flow. One simple method was proposed to obtain the restraint of back flow and so as to improve the pump performance. This method was to set up a ringlike wall at the suction cover casing between the impeller outlet and the volute casing. Its effects on the flow pattern and the pump performance have been discussed and clarified to compare the calculated results with experimental results done under two conditions, namely, one with and one without this ring-type wall. The influence of wall’s height on the pump head was investigated by numerical simulations. In addition, the difference due to the wall’s effect was clarified to compare its effects on two kinds of volute casing. From the results obtained it can be said that restraining the back flow of such pumps was very important to achieve higher pump performance. Furthermore, another method was suggested to restrain back flow effectively. This method was to attach a wall at the trailing edge of impeller. This method was very useful for avoiding the congestion of solids because this wall was smaller than that used in the first method. The influence of these factors on the pump performance was also discussed by comparing simulated calculations with actual experiments.


1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. K. Gahlot ◽  
V. Seshadri ◽  
R. C. Malhotra

Experimental data on the performance of the centrifugal pumps pumping mixtures of solids and water have been presented. The solids used were coal of density 1480 kg/m3 and zinc tailings of density 2850 kg/m3. Maximum size of particles was approximately 3 mm. Tests have been conducted with a rubber lined impeller pump and a metal impeller pump. Effects of solid properties (viz: density, size, and size distribution as well as concentration of solids) on the performance of the pumps have been studied. The measured performance of pumps is compared with the predictions based on the correlations available in literature and a modified empirical relationship has been proposed for the prediction of the pump performance with slurries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 141 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ren Yun ◽  
Zhu Zuchao ◽  
Wu Denghao ◽  
Li Xiaojun

Multistage centrifugal pumps are highly efficient and compact in structure. Pump efficiency can be improved by an effective understanding of hydraulic behavior and energy loss, however, the traditional hydraulic loss evaluation method does not readily reveal the specific locations of energy loss in the pump. In this study, a guide ring was imposed in multistage pumps, and an entropy production theory was applied to investigate irreversible energy loss of a multistage pump with and without guide ring. Detailed distributions of energy losses in the pumps were calculated to determine the respective entropy production rates (EPRs). The EPR values as calculated are in close accordance with actual hydraulic loss values in the pumps. EPR values were higher in the multistage pump with the guide ring than the pump without a guide ring under part-load flow conditions (0.2Qd). However, the vortex flow in the pump was weakened (or eliminated) by the guide ring as flow rate increased; this reduced energy loss in the chambers. Flow passing the chamber was stabilized by the guide ring, which decreased shock and vortex loss in the chamber and guide vane. Under both designed flow condition and overload conditions, the EPR values of the guide ring-equipped multistage pump were lower than those without the guide ring. Furthermore, minimum efficiency index (MEI) values were also calculated for the two chamber structures; it was found that overall efficiency of pump with guide ring is better than that without.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-88
Author(s):  
Nur Hanna Khairul Anuar ◽  
Mohd Nizar Mhd Razali ◽  
Mohamad Rusydi Mohamad Yasin ◽  
Musfirah Abdul Hadi ◽  
Abdul Nasir Abd. Ghaffar

Viscosity is one of the factors affecting the performance of the centrifugal pump. A centrifugal pump is a device that used driven motor called impeller to move fluid by rotational energy. This thesis is about the analysis of the performance of the centrifugal pump when transferring viscous liquids. For this project, the objective is to design and fabricate a device that can pump liquid with various viscosity using centrifugal pump. The liquids used in the experiment are comprised of a mixture of detergent and water with different ratio to alter the viscosity. The viscosity is being identified by the usage of Zahn Cup Method with the temperature kept constant at 26 °C throughout the experiment. The performance of the centrifugal pump is being investigated by four parameters which is the flowrate, Total Dynamic Head (TDH), power and efficiency. The performance of the centrifugal pump can be accessed by altering the pump shaft speed in order to get various reading for the flow rate. In order to alter the pump shaft speed, the usage of motor with Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) is implemented. The values for the flowrate and pump shaft power are measured by flowmeter and Variable Frequency Drive (VFD). The Total Dynamic Head (TDH), hydraulic power and pump efficiency is calculated based on the reading of the flowmeter and pump shaft power displayed at Variable Frequency Drive (VFD). At the end of this project, the pump performance while pumping different viscous liquids at different flowrates is being identified.


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