Pressure fluctuation study in the stages of a multistage pump at best efficiency points under various operating speeds

The interaction between the rotor and stator is a major source of high amplitude pressure fluctuation and flow-induced vibration in multistage centrifugal pumps. The pressure fluctuation is detrimental to the reliable operation of pumps. The sensitivity of vibration is severe if the number of stages is more. In the present experimental study, a vertical multistage centrifugal submersible pump is used to measure the pressure fluctuation level at Best Efficiency Points (BEP) and to determine the influence of stage and operating speed on pressure fluctuation. For this purpose, pressure fluctuation signals were captured at the delivery side of the pump at BEP at various speed settings. The characteristics of pressure fluctuation at BEP at various operating speeds were studied with the help of spectra, i.e., in the frequency domain. The amplitude variation of pressure fluctuation with harmonics of vane passing frequency at stages were studied. Results have indicated that variation of pressure fluctuation with stage and speed exhibited a non-linear variation. In addition, such a pressure fluctuation study will be helpful to modify the design to obtain a uniform pressure distribution in the stages of a multistage pump.

CFD-DEM Simulation of Backflow Blockage of Deep-Sea Multistage Pump

The multistage centrifugal pump is the critical component of mineral resources lifting in deep-sea mining. The reflux of nodules in the lifting pipe caused by the emergency pump stop can easily cause the pump to clog. In this paper, coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics and Discrete Element Method (CFD-DEM co-simulations) are used to clarify the solid-liquid two-phase flow in two-stage centrifugal pumps under different particle sizes (10–20, 20–30, 30–40, 40–50 mm) with constant particle concentration. The movement and accumulation behaviour of particles in different flow fields (pipeline to pump, the first to the second pump stage) is investigated. Meanwhile, the effect of particle size and particle reflux velocity on the blockage of the flow channel in the pump was investigated. Particle accumulation in the pump was observed to determine the key factors affecting the pump’s reflux capacity. The residual mass of particles in the pump at different particle sizes was counted. Simultaneously, the percentage of residual mass of 10–20 mm particles in the pump was compared between the experiment and the simulation with an acceptable tolerance of within 10%. In addition, pressure changes in the blockage-prone section were also investigated. A comparison between experiments and simulations verifies the consistency of the trend on the pump inlet pressure when clogged with 50 mm particles. It was found that larger particles in the range of 10–30 mm can better ensure the pump’s reflux performance.

A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Guided Engineering Solution for Performance Improvement of a Multistage Pump

This work will demonstrate how the Energy Recovery Inc. (ERI) engineering team improved the efficiency of a multistage pump by about 10% at the first stage, which translated into a 3% increase in the overall multistage pump efficiency; according to a set of engineering calculations and review of the archived in-house test data for the legacy multistage pumps, it was hypothesized that the performance pain-point of the pump was inefficient performance of the first stage, due to the formation of a strong pre-swirl right before its inlet. The validity of this hypothesis then was confirmed via RANS CFD simulations of the flow field inside the inlet suction housing and pump impeller. Same CFD methodology was used to evaluate multiple engineering solutions to reduce the strength of the inflow pre-swirl by modifying the inlet suction housing geometry. The obtained RANS CFD solutions guided the engineering team towards the most promising hardware modification proposal. The proposed geometrical modification of the inlet suction housing was implemented and tested on different multistage pumps. All of the test results validated the obtained RANS CFD numerical solution. The state of the art in this successful performance improvement process was first the on-point hypothesis development based on fundamentals of engineering and archived test data. Second, the proper RANS CFD methodology development to model/confirm the initial hypothesis and vet all possible engineering solutions to maximize the multistage pump efficiently and accurately. This can be a great example for various relevant turbomachinery industrial applications.

Numerical Investigation of Axial Thrust Control in a Multistage Canned-Motor Pump With Pump-Out-Vanes

Axial thrust is one of the critical factors that affect the pump’s continuously operating reliability. Among all the available methods for axial thrust controlling, Pump Out Vanes (POVs) are an easy and effective way. Different from a single-stage pump with a scroll, an in-line multistage pump will have a leakage flow channel from the return channel. With this leakage channel, the working environment of the POVs will be significantly different from a single-stage pump. In this paper, the first stage of a multistage pump with both POVs and casing ribs (vortex breakers) is studied by CFD simulation to evaluate their effect on the axial thrust, pump stage performance, and the internal leakage flow. Because of the similar POV working environment in the multistage pump, the conclusion from one stage can be generalized for the rest stages. In this study, 5 models with different POV outer radius and height are simulated in Ansys Fluent with k-ε turbulence model and transient rotor-stator sliding mesh method. The results show that POVs with suitable geometry can provide good axial thrust control over a wide pump operating range while the stage efficiency can be strongly affected due to the increased turbulence and interstage leakage flow, which is contradicting some previous researcher’s conclusion based on the study of a single-stage centrifugal pump.