Phase Distribution in the Tip Clearance of a Multiphase Pump at Multiple Operating Points and Its Effect on the Pressure Fluctuation Intensity

Tip clearance has a great effect on the flow and pressure fluctuation characteristics in a multiphase pump, especially at multiple operating points. The phase distribution and pressure fluctuation in tip clearance in a multiphase pump are revealed using the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) technology and high-speed photography methods. In this paper, the phase distribution, the gas-liquid two-phase velocity slip, and the pressure fluctuation intensity are comprehensively analyzed. Results show with the increase of the tip clearance, the multiphase pump pressurization performance is obviously deteriorated. In the meantime, the gas accumulation mainly occurs at the hub, the blade suction side (SS), and the tip clearance, and the maximum gas-liquid two-phase velocity difference is near the impeller streamwise of 0.4. In addition, the tip clearance improves the gas-liquid two-phase distribution in the pump, that is, the larger the tip clearance is, the more uniform the gas-liquid distribution becomes. Furthermore, the gas leads to the maximum pressure fluctuation intensity in the tip clearance which is closer to the tip leakage flow (TLF) outlet, and has a greater effect on the degree of flow separation in the tip clearance.

Measurement and Comparison of Melt-Blowing Airflow Fields: Nozzle Modifications to Reduce Turbulence and Fibre Whipping

In the melt-blowing process, micro/nanofibrous nonwovens are attenuated and formed through aerodynamic force in a turbulent airflow field. In this work, two types of airflow-directors were added under a common melt-blowing slot-die nozzle to obtain modified airflow fields. The effect of airflow-directors on time-averaged characteristics, turbulence intensity, and temperature fluctuation intensity are achieved through the simultaneous measurement of fluctuating velocity and fluctuating temperature using a two-wire probe hot-wire anemometer. Moreover, the influence of airflow-directors on fibre oscillations are also investigated through high-speed photography. The distribution of turbulence intensity and temperature fluctuation intensity reveals the characteristics of fluctuating airflow fields formed by different melt-blowing slot-die nozzles. Through the analyses of airflow characteristics and fibre oscillations, we can find that the arrangement of airflow-directors has a great impact on both turbulence distribution and fibre oscillation.

The Action Mechanism of Rotor–Stator Interaction on Hydraulic and Hydroacoustic Characteristics of a Jet Centrifugal Pump Impeller and Performance Improvement

The aim of this study was to investigate the action mechanism of the rotor–stator interaction (RSI) on the transient flow field and hydrodynamic noise field inside the impeller of jet centrifugal pumps (JCPs) and optimize effects of the guide vane on the hydraulic and hydroacoustic characteristics of the impeller. The numerical method of CFD (computational fluid dynamics) coupled with CFA (computational fluid acoustics) was used to analyze the correlation between the guide vane and the flow/sound performances of the impeller. The orthogonal test method, with the hydroacoustic performance of the impeller taken as the objective, was used to optimize the structural parameters of the guide vane for the stability of the hydraulic performance of the JCP. The results show that the RSI leads to a significant increase in the hydroacoustic level of the impeller, but it is indispensable for improving the hydraulic performance of the pump. The RSI effect on the fluctuation intensity of the transient flow field inside the impeller is much more sensitive than the time-average, and the fluctuation intensity of the flow field is positively correlated with the vortex intensity inside the impeller. When the impeller geometry is constant, the evolution processes of the flow field inside the impeller are mainly related to the blade number of the guide vane; when the number of guide vanes is given, the RSI effect on the hydroacoustic characteristic of the impeller is characterized by a positive correlation between the total sound pressure level (SPL) and the fluctuation intensity of the flow field. The frequency spectrum characteristics of the hydroacoustic SPL of the impeller are not consistent with the pressure fluctuation characteristics inside the impeller. The pressure fluctuation characteristics are related not only to the blade number and speed of the impeller but also to its wake characteristics determined by the guide vane. The optimization scheme for the stable hydraulic performance of the JCP significantly reduced the total SPL of the impeller compared with the original scheme, which verifies the feasibility of using the weight matrix optimization method to obtain the global optimization scheme.

Pressure Fluctuation Reduction in Side Channel Pumps Using a Modified Impeller Blade

For the unique performance advantages of side channel pump delivering flows at high heads, it has been applied in many fields such as petrochemical, pharmaceutical, food processing, automobile fuel pumping etc. However, the operation of the pump is strongly affected by the intensity of the pressure fluctuation, thus the pressure fluctuation exiting within the pump cannot be neglected because of its direct influence on the noise and vibration performance. Therefore, reducing the pressure fluctuation intensity is a key point for research. The side channel pump studied in this paper is a prototype with an axial channel and a 24-blade impeller. The pressure fluctuation intensity of the pump is studied using numerical simulations at best efficiency point. The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations (URANS) are solved with the Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model using commercial CFX codes. The time and frequency plots of the pressure fluctuation coefficient, Cp of the original impeller scheme at different monitoring points revealed high pressure fluctuation intensities affecting the pump’s operating reliability. For the purpose of reducing the pressure fluctuation intensity in the pump, the impeller geometry is modified with a small blade at the outer radius. The study showed that the pressure fluctuation within the pump is reduced significantly at the monitoring points. Moreover, it is found out that the pressure fluctuation in both impeller schemes are mainly caused by the flow exchange between the impeller and side channel. The results of this paper can provide reference for pressure fluctuation reduction and Noise-Vibration-Harshness (NVH) study in turbomachinery.

Reconstruction and Prediction of Flow Field Fluctuation Intensity and Flow-Induced Noise in Impeller Domain of Jet Centrifugal Pump Using Gappy POD Method

To analyze the interrelations among impeller blade geometry, flow field fluctuation intensity and impeller-induced hydrodynamic noise of jet centrifugal pump (JCP), a Gappy proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method combined with computational fluid dynamics/computational fluid acoustics (CFD/CFA) technique was proposed to reconstruct and predict the unsteady flow field fluctuation intensity and flow-induced noise in impeller region. The snapshot sets were composed of blade profile parameters, flow field fluctuation intensity data and the data of sound pressure level of hydrodynamic noise in the frequency domain. Similar mesh reconstruction and flow field interpolation were carried out to have the same number of flow field data. The snapshot sets were decomposed into a linear combination of orthogonal bases using the singular value decomposition (SVD) method. The orthogonal basis coefficients corresponding to the objective variables were fitted by the least square method. The results show that the proposed method has a good accuracy in predicting the flow field fluctuation intensity and flow-induced noise of the JCP impeller domain. The relative error of pressure fluctuation intensity field is less than 4.0%, relative velocity fluctuation intensity field is less than 3.0%, turbulent kinetic energy fluctuation intensity field is less than 4.5%, and impeller-induced hydrodynamic noise is less than 10%. Taking the method as a surrogate model to predict the flow field fluctuation intensity and the radiation level of hydrodynamic noise in the optimization process of centrifugal pump impeller, it could not only reduce the calculation amount and time significantly and improve optimization speed and efficiency greatly but could also provide a reference for vibration characteristics of the models.

Feature of Echo Envelope Fluctuation and Its Application in the Discrimination of Underwater Real Echo and Synthetic Echo

Discriminating a real underwater target echo from a synthetic echo is a key challenge to identifying an underwater target. The structure of an echo envelope contains information which closely relates to the physical parameters of the underwater target, and the characterization and extraction of echo features are problematic issues for active sonar target classification. In this study, firstly, the high-frequency envelope fluctuation of a complex underwater target echo was analyzed, the envelope fluctuation was characterized by the envelope fluctuation intensity, and a characterization model was established. The features of a benchmark model echo were extracted and analyzed by theoretical simulation and sea testing of a scaled model, and the result shows that the envelope fluctuation intensity varies with carrier frequency and azimuth of incident signal, but the echo envelope fluctuation of the synthetic target echo does not present these features. Then, based on the characteristics of echo envelope fluctuation, a novel method was developed for active sonar discrimination of a real underwater target echo from the synthetic echo. Through a sea experiment, the real target echo and synthetic echo were classified by their different echo envelope fluctuations, and the feasibility of the method was verified.