Study on the Comparison of the Hydraulic Performance and Pressure Pulsation Characteristics of a Shaft Front-Positioned and a Shaft Rear-Positioned Tubular Pump Devices

The shaft front-positioned tubular pump device has been widely used in practical engineering, but the shaft rear-positioned pump device is rarely used due to its low efficiency. To investigate the effect of the shaft position on the performance of a tubular pump device, the optimized shaft front-positioned and shaft rear-positioned pump devices were compared and studied. Both tubular pump devices adopt a TJ04-ZL-06 pump model. Three dimensional steady and unsteady numerical simulations combined with model tests were used to compare the difference of two pump devices. Meanwhile, three groups of pressure monitoring points were set at different positions of the pump device to collect pressure information and pressure pulsation was analyzed. The results show that, the highest efficiency of the shaft front and rear positioned pump device are 81.78% and 80.26%, respectively. The hydraulic performance of the two inlet passages is excellent, and the hydraulic loss is close to each other. Therefore, the hydraulic performance of the pump device depends mainly on the hydraulic performance of the outlet passage. The shaft is set in the outlet passage, which will increase the hydraulic loss and reduce efficiency. Under design conditions, the pressure pulsation amplitude at the impeller inlet is the largest, and the pressure pulsation amplitude increases from the hub to the shroud. The pressure pulsation amplitude of the shaft rear-positioned pump device is larger than that of the shaft front-positioned pump device. The pressure pulsation at the impeller inlet and outlet is greatly affected by the number of blades, and the main frequency is three times the RF. This study can provide practical and effective guidance for the design and optimization of the shaft front-positioned and rear-positioned tubular pump devices, which has theoretical value and application value.

Study on a horizontal axial flow pump during runaway process with bidirectional operating conditions

The ultra-low head pump stations often have bidirectional demand of water delivery, so there is a risk of runaway accident occurring in both conditions. To analyze the difference of the runaway process under forward runaway condition (FRC) and backward runaway condition (BRC), the whole flow system of a horizontal axial flow pump is considered. The Shear-Stress Transport (SST) k–ω model is adopted and the volume of fluid (VOF) model is applied to simulate the water surface in the reservoirs. Meanwhile, the torque balance equation is introduced to obtain the real time rotational speed, then the bidirectional runaway process of the pump with the same head is simulated. In addition, the vortex transport equation and swirl number are proposed to reveal the flow characteristics during the runaway process. The results show that the runaway process can be divided into five stages: the drop, braking, rising, convergence and runaway stages, according to the changing law of torque curve. In the rising stage, the pressure difference on the blade surface continues to increase, which contributes to the abnormal torque increase. In this stage, the flow hits the pressure surface (PS) at a faster speed enlarging the pressure on PS, and the flow separation takes place on the suction surface (SS) weakening the pressure on SS. During the convergence and runaway stage, the pulsation amplitude of torque and axial force under FRC is obviously larger than those under BRC. This is because the rotation frequency of the vortex rope is the same as main pressure fluctuation frequency in impeller under FRC, which enhances the pulsation amplitude. Whereas the vortices are broken due to the inhibitive effect from guide vanes under BRC.

The Temporal-Spatial Features of Pressure Pulsation in the Diffusers of a Large-Scale Vaned-Voluted Centrifugal Pump

A large-scale, vaned-voluted centrifugal pump can be applied as the key component in water-transfer projects. Pressure pulsation will be an important factor in affecting the operation stability. This paper researches the propagation and spatial distribution law of blade passing frequency (BPF) and its harmonics on the design condition by numerical simulation. Experimental and numerical monitoring is conducted for pressure pulsation on four discrete points in the vaneless region, which shows that the BPF is dominant. The pulsation tracking network (PTN) is applied to research propagation law and spatial distribution law. It provides a reference for frequency domain information and visualization vaned diffuser. The amplitude of BPF and its harmonics decays rapidly in the vaneless region. BPF and BPF’s harmonics influence each other. BPF has local enhancement in the vaneless region when its harmonics attenuate. In the vaned diffuser, the pulsation amplitude of BPF attenuates rapidly, but the local high-pressure pulsation amplitude can be found on the vane blade concave side because of obstruction and accumulation of the vaned diffuser. In the volute, the pulsation amplitude of BPF is low with the decelerating attenuation. This study provides an effective method for understanding the pressure pulsation law in turbomachinery and other engineering flow cases.

Optimal energy growth in pulsatile channel and pipe flows

Pulsatile channel and pipe flows constitute a fundamental flow configuration with significant bearing on many applications in the engineering and medical sciences. Rotating machinery, hydraulic pumps or cardiovascular systems are dominated by time-periodic flows, and their stability characteristics play an important role in their efficient and proper operation. While previous work has mainly concentrated on the modal, harmonic response to an oscillatory or pulsatile base flow, this study employs a direct–adjoint optimisation technique to assess short-term instabilities, identify transient energy-amplification mechanisms and determine their prevalence within a wide parameter space. At low pulsation amplitudes, the transient dynamics is found to be similar to that resulting from the equivalent steady parabolic flow profile, and the oscillating flow component appears to have only a weak effect. After a critical pulsation amplitude is surpassed, linear transient growth is shown to increase exponentially with the pulsation amplitude and to occur mainly during the slow part of the pulsation cycle. In this latter regime, a detailed analysis of the energy transfer mechanisms demonstrates that the huge linear transient growth factors are the result of an optimal combination of Orr mechanism and intracyclic normal-mode growth during half a pulsation cycle. Two-dimensional sinuous perturbations are favoured in channel flow, while pipe flow is dominated by helical perturbations. An extensive parameter study is presented that tracks these flow features across variations in the pulsation amplitude, Reynolds and Womersley numbers, perturbation wavenumbers and imposed time horizon.

Tidally trapped pulsations in binary stars

ABSTRACT A new class of pulsating binary stars was recently discovered, whose pulsation amplitudes are strongly modulated with orbital phase. Stars in close binaries are tidally distorted, so we examine how a star’s tidally induced asphericity affects its oscillation mode frequencies and eigenfunctions. We explain the pulsation amplitude modulation via tidal mode coupling such that the pulsations are effectively confined to certain regions of the star, e.g. the tidal pole or the tidal equator. In addition to a rigorous mathematical formalism to compute this coupling, we provide a more intuitive semi-analytic description of the process. We discuss three resulting effects: (1) Tidal alignment, i.e. the alignment of oscillation modes about the tidal axis rather than the rotation axis; (2) Tidal trapping, e.g. the confinement of oscillations near the tidal poles or the tidal equator; (3) Tidal amplification, i.e. increased flux perturbations near the tidal poles where acoustic modes can propagate closer to the surface of the star. Together, these phenomena can account for the pulsation amplitude and phase modulation of the recently discovered class of ‘tidally tilted pulsators.’ We compare our theory to the three tidally tilted pulsators HD 74423, CO Cam, and TIC 63328020, finding that tidally trapped modes that are axisymmetric about the tidal axis can largely explain the first two, while a non-axisymmetric tidally aligned mode is present in the latter. Finally, we discuss implications and limitations of the theory, and we make predictions for the many new tidally tilted pulsators likely to be discovered in the near future.

Analysis of Rotor-Stator Interaction of a Pump-Turbine with Splitter Blades in a Pump Mode

The pump-turbine is the core component of a pumped storage power station. This paper considers an in-depth analysis of the rotor-stator interaction characteristics under computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimental measurements of pump-turbine with splitter blades used in a domestic pumped storage power station. The results show that as the guide blade opening increases, the rotor-stator interaction of the pump-turbine intensifies and the magnitude of the runner radial force and its pulsation amplitude as well as the magnitude of the guide blade water moment and its pulsation amplitude also increase. In addition, when the opening degree increases from 9.8° to 17.5°, the influence on the main frequency is mainly reflected in the phase change. While the opening degree increases from 17.5° to 24.8°, the influence on the main frequency is mainly reflected in the amplitude change. Moreover, the amplitude of 5fn at opening 9.8° and opening 24.8° is greater than the optimal opening 17.5°, indicating that deviation from the optimal opening will aggravate the difference of rotor-stator interaction between splitter blades and guide blades. In the paper, the influence of guide blade openings on the rotor-stator interaction between the splitter guide blade is studied, which provides a theoretical reference for the stable operation of the pump-turbine.

Experimental study of a lock-in phenomenon in the case of a mechanical oscillator flowmeter

Oscillatory flowmeters are susceptible to pulsatile flow and mechanical oscillator flowmeters are no exception. The experimental study was conducted to determine possible measurement errors for specific pulsation amplitude thresholds. The study verified that no frequency lock-in takes place for pulsation frequencies which are subharmonics of the natural oscillation frequency, nor for harmonics higher than the 2nd.

Analysis of Retinal Vessel Pulsation with Electrographic Gating – Pulsation Amplitude and the Influence of Hyperoxia

Purpose To analyse the amplitude of vessel pulsation in the retina and to determine whether constriction of the vessels by oxygen would decrease their pulsation amplitude and could thus be used to quantify the rigidity of the retinal vessels. Patients and Methods The study included 20 healthy young subjects. With the RVA (retinal vessel analyser), we aimed to quantify vessel pulsations under normal and hyperoxic conditions. Electrocardiographic (ECG)-gated RVA was used for this purpose, with change in vessel pulsation as the primary endpoint and shift in vessel pulsation during the heart cycle as the secondary endpoint. Furthermore, we assessed the correlation between the amplitude of retinal vessel wall pulsation and blood pressure. Descriptive statistics, paired t-tests, and correlation analysis were applied. Results Retinal veins in proximity to the optic disc demonstrated the highest pulsation amplitude under all conditions. All retinal vessels significantly constricted under hyperoxic conditions. There was no significant change in the amplitude of vessel pulsation nor a significant shift in the pulsation cycle under hyperoxic conditions in the examined cohort. No correlation was found between systemic blood pressure parameters and amplitude of retinal vessel wall pulsation or any change in this. Conclusion ECG-gated RVA recording is not able to detect any relevant change in vessel pulsation behaviour under oxygen, despite clearly observed vasoconstriction in retinal vessels. New approaches are necessary to reliably quantify the rigidity of the retinal vessels.

An Experimental Study on the Jet Pressure Performance of Organ–Helmholtz (O-H), Self-Excited Oscillating Nozzles

To make a better application of the self-excited oscillation jet, a compound organ–Helmholtz oscillation nozzle (OH nozzle) was designed to generate better pulse effects in the present study. The effects of geometric parameters on pressure characteristics of self-excited oscillation jets were investigated experimentally. The geometric parameters of OH nozzles were determined based on the design principle of the organ-pipe and Helmholtz nozzles. Various types of OH nozzles were tested to obtain the relationship between oscillation pressure and geometric parameters. Experimental results showed that some structural parameters are sensitive to the pump pressure, while others are not. The optimum geometric optimum parameters were obtained based on experimental results. The peak pressure and pressure pulsation amplitude are closely related to the target distance. The peak pressure decreases sharply with target distance at first and decreases with a further increase of the target distance. The peak pressure becomes stable beyond a certain range of target distance. With the increase of the target distance, the pressure pulsation amplitude increases at first and then decreases. The optimum target distance was determined based on experimental results to achieve better pulsation performance and has a value of 20 mm in the present study.

The flow limiting operator: a new approach to environmental control in flow bioreactors

FLO is a high-throughput bioreactor for testing biomaterials in more physiologically similar environments including pulsation amplitude, flow rate, and pressure waveforms which is done through the manipulation of fluid velocity.