scholarly journals Experimental and numerical investigation of some impeller geometric parameters of an industrial electric submersible pump

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeynel Abbidin Firatoglu ◽  
Mustafa Nuri Alihanoglu

Abstract Submersible pumps, which are the main means of bringing the ground liquid to the surface, are widely used in agricultural irrigation, petroleum industry, geothermal fields, and similar applications. In most applications, submersible pumps are the main energy inputs of the operating process. Therefore, a small improvement in submersible pump efficiency will significantly reduce the operating cost of the system. The motivation and focus of this study are to experimentally and numerically investigate the effect of the geometric parameters of the submersible pump on the efficiency of the pump. The submersible pump has a design in the form of the serial connection of the stages including the impeller and the diffuser and enters the multi-stage pump category. All the impeller connected to a single shaft rotates at the same angular velocity. Despite the rotation of the impeller at a constant angular speed along with the pump, the flow structure at each stage shows large variations compared to other stages. These differences lead to the formation of a complex flow structure and thus to great difficulties in the experimental identification of the flow field along with the pump. Another difficulty in the experimental definition is that the measured values can show dramatic changes depending on many parameters such as fluid viscosity-temperature, impeller inlet-outlet angle, diffuser inlet-outlet angle, number of blades, the distance between stages, surface roughness. The current general trend is to solve the above-mentioned problems with numerical simulations verified by experimental data. This trend is a result of significant developments in computer capacities parallel to the development of numerical solution methods in recent years. This trend, or the method, has been followed throughout this study. Firstly, within the scope of this study, the performance in different stages of a selected industrial submersible pump was measured by the experimental. Following the measurements, the effects of two basic geometric parameters, such as impeller outlet width and impeller outlet angle on the pump performance were examined with CFD simulations verified by the experimental measurements. This small deviation indicates that the CFD simulation results are in perfect agreement with the experimental measurements. In the simulations performed, it is observed that the time-dependent variables have their size changed but the flow structure does not change. Another striking finding from the CFD simulations carried out is; it has been observed that while geometric arrangements have a partial effect on the flow structure along with the pump, they cause a difference in the critical values on the basic variables that define pump performance, such as pressure.

Author(s):  
Wenjie Wang ◽  
Shouqi Yuan ◽  
Ji Pei ◽  
Jinfeng Zhang ◽  
Jianping Yuan ◽  
...  

To improve the performance of the centrifugal pump with a vaned diffuser, the influence of impeller geometric parameters on external characteristics of the pump was investigated by Orthogonal Experimental Method (OEM) based on CFD. Blade outlet width b2, blade wrap angle φ, blade outlet angle β2, and blade number Z were selected as the main impeller geometric parameters and the orthogonal experiment of L9 (33*21), which contained 3 levels of the 3 factors and 2 levels of one factor, was done in this study. Three-dimensional steady simulations were conducted by solving the RANS equations in the design procedure with SST k-ω turbulence model, and about 5.3 million structured grids for the whole calculation domains were used. The experimental results were justified by the variance analysis method. The inner flow of the pump was also analyzed in order to obtain the flow behaviors that can affect the pump performance. The results showed that the blade outlet angle β2 had the greatest influence on the efficiency and power. The high efficiency area of the optimal impeller is wider. The final optimized impeller accomplished better pump performance, which meet the design requirements. The velocity distribution in the optimized impeller is more regular and the area of the high turbulence kinetic energy is smaller in the optimal impeller.


2011 ◽  
Vol 354-355 ◽  
pp. 847-852
Author(s):  
Chuan Wang ◽  
Wei Dong Shi ◽  
Wei Gang Lu ◽  
Yan Xu ◽  
Ling Zhou

In order to develop stamping well pump with high efficiency, 4SP14 stainless steel stamping well pump was set as an example. Combined with the features of stamping technology, this research was taken on raising the efficiency of stamping well pump, using hydraulic design of impeller and CFD and regression test method. The experiment was designed with four factors including impeller inlet angle Δβ1, impeller outlet angle β2, and impeller outlet width b2 and inlet width of guide vane B3. 30 groups of programs were designed according to CCD central composite test method. The whole flow field of well pump at the operating point was simulated by FLUENT using the standard k-ε model, SIMPLE algorithm, first-order upwind scheme. 30 group of efficiency were obtained. Use regression equation to fit the function relationship between the efficiency value and each factor. Through the analysis of the regression equation, the optimal combination of geometric parameters can be found as inlet angle 4º, outlet angle 27.5º, outlet width 9.5mm and inlet width of guide vane 11.5mm. After manufactured and tested according to the above geometric parameters, the efficiency of the optimal model pump reaches 60.28%, which reaches the international advanced level.


Author(s):  
Gerald Morrison ◽  
Wenjie Yin ◽  
Rahul Agarwal ◽  
Abhay Patil

Understanding and predicting the effect of viscosity change on an Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) performance is of great significance to the oil and gas operators. The purpose of this research is to investigate the flow behavior inside a mixed flow type pump operating with fluids of different viscosities using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) with the goal to establish additional terms for the pump affinity laws to scale pump performance including the effects of viscosity. Several sets of fluids of different viscosities and densities are simulated under various operating conditions. The effect of viscosity on the performance of the impeller and diffuser is discussed. Changes in the pump performance due to fluid viscosity are characterized using the dimensionless flow coefficient, head coefficient and rotational Reynolds number. The result, which can be regarded as the modified pump affinity laws for viscosity flows, was obtained based on the relationships between dimensionless coefficients. The modified affinity laws agreed well with the CFD results. Further study was conducted to validate the relationships using previously published test data for a semi axial pump design (Specific Speed, Ns: 3869) tested with fluid viscosity ranging from 1 cp to 1020 cp and in-house testing of a split vane impeller pump (Ns: 3027) and a helicoaxial pump (Ns: 5281) using 1cp and 5 cp viscosity fluid. The modified affinity laws accurately models the performance dependence upon viscosity. As with the standard affinity laws, a pump’s functional relationship varies with each pump design. Yet the modified affinity laws produce a single common curve for all operating conditions and viscosities for a specific pump.


Author(s):  
MH Siddique ◽  
Abdus Samad ◽  
Afzal Husain

An electric submersible pump that lifts crude oil from well bore is a type of multi-stage centrifugal pump. The unexpected wellbore conditions like change in pumping fluid viscosity and sand production severely affect pump performance and eventually lead to breakdown. The present study proposes a numerical approach to understand the effects of fluid viscosity and surface roughness of the flow passages in an electric submersible pump at design and off-design conditions. A three-dimensional numerical analysis was carried out by solving Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations with shear stress transport turbulence model to characterize performance of the pump. The pumping fluids, i.e., water and crude oils of different viscosities were analyzed for different surface roughness ( Ks) values. The model predictions were compared with a theoretical one-dimensional model for the effect of viscosity and surface roughness. It was found that the disc-friction and the skin-friction losses are sensitive hydraulic losses of which the disc-friction loss increases with increase in viscosity, whereas skin-friction loss decreases with increase in surface roughness at high viscosity. The combined effect of viscosity and roughness showed a complicated behavior and eventually an improvement in pump performance at a higher surface roughness compared to a smoother and lowers surface roughness.


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.


Author(s):  
Manoochehr Darvish ◽  
Bastian Tietjen ◽  
Daniel Beck ◽  
Stefan Frank

The main focus of this work is on the geometrical modifications that can be applied to the fan wheel and the volute tongue of a radial fan to reduce the tonal noise. The experimental measurements are performed by using the in-duct method in accordance with ISO 5136. In addition to the experimental measurements, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and CAA (Computational Aeroacoustics) simulations are carried out to investigate the effects of different modifications on the noise and performance of the fan. It is shown that by modifying the blade outlet angle, the tonal noise of the fan can be reduced without affecting the performance of the fan. Moreover, it is indicated that increasing the number of blades leads to a significant reduction in the tonal noise and also an improvement in the performance. However, this trend is only valid up to a certain number of blades, and a further increment might reduce the aerodynamic performance of the fan. Besides modifying the impeller geometry, new volute tongues are designed and manufactured. It is demonstrated that the shape of the volute tongue plays an important role in the tonal noise generation of the fan. It is possible to reduce the tonal noise by using stepped tongues which produce phase-shift effects that lead to an effective local cancellation of the noise.


Author(s):  
Imran Qureshi ◽  
Andy D. Smith ◽  
Kam S. Chana ◽  
Thomas Povey

Detailed experimental measurements have been performed to understand the effects of turbine inlet temperature distortion (hot-streaks) on the heat transfer and aerodynamic characteristics of a full-scale unshrouded high pressure turbine stage at flow conditions that are representative of those found in a modern gas turbine engine. To investigate hot-streak migration, the experimental measurements are complemented by three-dimensional steady and unsteady CFD simulations of the turbine stage. This paper presents the time-averaged measurements and computational predictions of rotor blade surface and rotor casing heat transfer. Experimental measurements obtained with and without inlet temperature distortion are compared. Time-mean experimental measurements of rotor casing static pressure are also presented. CFD simulations have been conducted using the Rolls-Royce code Hydra, and are compared to the experimental results. The test turbine was the unshrouded MT1 turbine, installed in the Turbine Test Facility (previously called Isentropic Light Piston Facility) at QinetiQ, Farnborough UK. This is a short duration transonic facility, which simulates engine representative M, Re, Tu, N/T and Tg /Tw at the turbine inlet. The facility has recently been upgraded to incorporate an advanced second-generation temperature distortion generator, capable of simulating well-defined, aggressive temperature distortion both in the radial and circumferential directions, at the turbine inlet.


Author(s):  
Thuy Chu ◽  
Tan C. Nguyen ◽  
Jihoon Wang ◽  
Duc Vuong

AbstractElectrical Submersible Pump (ESP) is one of the major Artificial Lift methods that is reliable and effective for pumping high volume of fluids from wellbores. However, ESP is not recommended for applications with high gas liquid ratio. The presence of free gas inside the pump causes pump performance degradation which may lead to problems or even failure during operations. Thus, it is important to investigate effect of free gas on ESP performance under downhole conditions. At present, existing models or correlations are based on/verified with experimental data. This study is one of the first attempts to develop correlations for predicting two-phase gas–liquid pump performance under downhole conditions by using field data and laboratory data. Field data from three oil producing wells provided by Strata Production Company and Perdure Petroleum LLC. as well as experimental data obtained from experimental facility at Production and Drilling Research Project—New Mexico Tech were used in this study. Actual two-phase pump differential pressure per stage is obtained from experiments or estimated from field data and was normalized using pump performance curve. The values are compared to pump performance curve to study the relationships between pump performance and free gas percentage at pump intake. Correlations to predict ESP performance in two-phase flow under downhole and experimental conditions was derived from the results using regression technique. The correlation developed from field data presented in this study can be used to predict two-phase ESP performance under downhole conditions and under high gas fraction. The results from the experimental data confirm the reliability of the developed correlation using field data to predict two-phase ESP performance under downhole conditions. The developed correlation using the laboratory data predicts quite well the two-phase pump performance at the gas fraction of less than 15% while it is no longer reliable when free gas fraction is more than 15%. The findings from this study will help operating companies as well as ESP manufacturers to operate ESPs within the recommended range under downhole conditions. However, it is recommended to use the proposed correlation on reservoirs with conditions similar to those of the three presented wells.


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