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

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.

Effects of the Rates on the Performance and Pressure Pulsations of a High-Speed Pump with Straight Blade

Along with the crucial requirement for efficiency improvement in the cutting-edge petrochemical technology, the evaluation of the dynamic performance characteristics of high-speed pump is becoming increasingly important. It has become a main topic in the research of high-speed pump to minimize the pressure pulsation induced by the fluid in the pump body, so as to reduce the mechanical vibration. Although the research on the transient flow characteristic and pressure fluctuation of a high-speed pump with straight blades is of great significance, it has been seldom explored. In this work, the flow instability of a 16 straight-blade high-speed centrifugal pump is studied numerically at a rotational speed of 8500 rpm and flow rate of 3 m3/h. Results show that with the influence of rotor-stator interaction, time-domain pressure signals at the tongue show double peak characteristic, whereas a single peak characteristic exists at the diffuser wall. The pressure fluctuation near the tongue is reduced to approximately half of that at the volute wall by the water ring effect accompanied with the high-pressure factor. At the tongue region, the amplitude of the blade passing frequency is reduced by the unsteady flow, whereas the harmonic wave was increased at 2–4 times of the blade passing frequency.

Pressure Fluctuation Reduction of a Centrifugal Pump by Blade Trailing Edge Modification

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.

Broadband force spectrum of a pump-jet under inflow turbulence

To clarify the characteristics of unsteady force spectrum of a pump-jet running under inflow turbulent,the turbulence grid and Fourier synthesis method is employed to produce incoming turbulence with spatial flow structure and temporal fluctuation, which is combined with LES (large eddy simulation) to obtain broadband unsteady force spectrum of the pump-jet. The results show that the proposed method could obtain the unsteady force broadband spectrum for duct, stator and rotor. The unsteady force broadband spectrum of the pump-jet is composed of the "hump" around the blade passing frequency and its multiples, the characteristic line spectrum at the stator blade passing frequency and shaft frequency of adjacent stator multiples. With the number of blades increasing, the "hump" becomes more obvious, the characteristic peak changes periodically and reaches the minimum when the number of blades is the number of rotors. Due to the use of the stator and duct, the amplitude of the unsteady force broadband spectrum of the pump-jet is higher than propeller, but the "hump" is not as obvious as propeller. The research is helpful to clarify the unsteady force characteristics of pump-jet induced by turbulence, and provide ideas for the vibration and noise reduction of pump-jet.

Design of a single degree of freedom acoustic liner for a fan noise test rig

Acoustic liners are an essential part of noise reduction technologies commonly applied in aircraft turbofan engines. Fan noise suppression can be achieved by selecting an appropriate liner design with optimal acoustic impedance at the blade passing frequency. Great efforts have been made not only to improve experimental characterization and numerical methods for acoustic liners, but also to understand noise generation mechanisms, which ultimately impacts on the liner design itself. To gain confidence in the liner design process, a liner barrel was developed and fabricated for the Fan Noise Test Rig located at the University of São Paulo. To this end, analytical methods were used to determine the optimal acoustic impedance for the Fan Noise Test Rig, and a flat test sample was fabricated for experimental characterization with flow using both in-situ and impedance eduction techniques at the Federal University of Santa Catarina. A liner barrel of same nominal geometry was fabricated and placed at the Fan Noise Test Rig, and a modal decomposition indicated that the Tyler-Sofrin mode has been successfully suppressed at the first blade passing frequency. Numerical predictions of liner transmission loss considering the flat sample impedance showed good agreement with experimental results.

Effect of the Speed Factor On the Amplitude of the Blade Passing Frequency in the Vaneless Space of a Pump Turbine in Turbine Mode

An exponential expression describing the relationship between the amplitude of the blade passing frequency in the vaneless space of a pump turbine operating in the turbine mode and the speed factor is proposed based on statistical analysis. This mathematical relationship was discovered through signal processing of the data recorded during the emergency load rejection process of a prototype pump turbine. Subsequently, based on the pumped-storage test rig at Wuhan University, an experimental investigation was conducted to verify this mathematical relationship. The results indicated that, under the optimal guide vane opening of the model pump turbine, the goodness of fit of this mathematical relationship was quite high. As for the Francis pump turbine, the speed factor corresponds to the Strouhal number. Therefore, for this correlation, the underlying physical mechanism is the influence of the Strouhal number. This relation could inform the design and operation of pump turbines to control the intensity of pressure pulsations in the vaneless space. In addition, based on this mathematical relationship, the intensity of the rotor-stator interaction for different pump turbines can be compared quantitively.

Towards the Large-Eddy Simulation of a full engine: Integration of a 360 azimuthal degrees fan, compressor and combustion chamber. Part II: Comparison against stand-alone simulations

Unsteady simulations of various components of a gas-turbine engine are often carried out independently and only share averaged quantities at the component interfaces. In order to study the impact and interactions between components, this work compares results from sectoral stand-alone simulations of a fan, compressor and annular combustion chamber of the DGEN-380 demonstrator engine at take-off conditions against an integrated 360 azimuthal degrees large-eddy simulation with over 2.1 billion cells of all previously listed components. Note that, at take-off conditions the compressor works at transonic conditions and generates an upstream-propagating shock that interacts with the fan modifying the shape of its wake with respect to the stand-alone simulation. Furthermore, the shock is seen as a tone in the pressure spectra at half the impeller blade passing frequency in the forward region of the engine. In the aft region, time-averaged fields are overall similar between stand-alone and integrated simulations but show a deviation in the azimuthal position of the hot-spot at the exit of the combustion chamber due to the addition of the diffuser. Pressure fluctuations generated in the compressor are captured in the combustion chamber as tones in the temperature and pressure spectra at the impeller blade-passing frequency and harmonics as well as an increase in the root-mean-square pressure.

Periodic flow structures in a turbofan fan stage in windmilling

In a fan stage under windmilling conditions, the stator operates under negative incidence, leading to flow separation, which may present an unsteady behaviour due to rotor/stator interactions. An experimental study of the unsteady flow through the fan stage of a bypass turbofan in windmilling is proposed, using hot-wire anemometry. Windmilling conditions are reproduced in a ground engine test bed by blowing a variable mass flow through a bypass turbofan in ambient conditions. Time-averaged profiles of flow coefficient are independent of the mass flow, demonstrating the similarity of velocity triangle. Turbulence intensity profiles reveal that the high levels of turbulence production due to local shear are also independent of the inlet flow. A spectral analysis confirms that the flow is dominated by the blade passing frequency, and that the separated regions downstream of the stator amplify the fluctuations locked to the BPF without adding any new frequency. Phase-locked averaging is used to capture the periodic wakes of the rotor blades at the rotor/stator interface. A spanwise behaviour typical of flows through windmilling fans is evidenced. Through the inner sections of the fan, rotor wakes are thin and weakly turbulent, and the turbulence level remains constant through the stage. The rotor wakes thicken and become more turbulent towards the fan tip, where flow separation occurs. Downstream of the stator, maximum levels of turbulence intensity are measured in the separated flow. Large periodical zones of low velocity and high turbulence intensity are observed in the outer parts of the separated stator wake, confirming the pulsating motion of the stator flow separation, locked at the blade passing frequency. Space-time diagrams show that the flow is chorochronic, and a 2 D non-linear harmonic simulation is able to capture the main interaction modes, however, the stator incidence distribution could be affected by 3 D effects.

Experimental Investigation of Pressure Fluctuations on Inner Wall of a Centrifugal Pump

Affected by rotor–stator interaction and unstable inner flow, asymmetric pressure distributions and pressure fluctuations cannot be avoided in centrifugal pumps. To study the pressure distributions on volute and front casing walls, dynamic pressure tests are carried out on a centrifugal pump. Frequency spectrum analysis of pressure fluctuation is presented based on Fast Fourier transform and steady pressure distribution is obtained based on time-average method. The results show that amplitudes of pressure fluctuation and blade-passing frequency are sensitive to the flow rate. At low flow rates, high-pressure region and large pressure gradients near the volute tongue are observed, and the main factors contributing to the pressure fluctuation are fluctuations in blade-passing frequency and high-frequency fluctuations. By contrast, at high flow rates, fluctuations of rotating-frequency and low frequencies are the main contributors to pressure fluctuation. Moreover, at low flow rates, pressure near volute tongue increases rapidly at first and thereafter increases slowly, whereas at high flow rates, pressure decreases sharply. Asymmetries are observed in the pressure distributions on both volute and front casing walls. With increasing of flow rate, both asymmetries in the pressure distributions and magnitude of the pressure decrease.