This paper studies the attached sheet cavitation in centrifugal pumps. A pump casted from Perspex is used as the test subject. The cavitation bubbles were observed in the entrance of the impeller and the drops of the head coefficients were measured under different operating conditions. A Filter-Based Model （FBM）, derived from the RNG k-e model, and a modified Zwart model are adopted in the numerical predictions of the unsteady cavitating flows in the pump. The simulations are carded out and the results are compared with experimental results for 3 different flow coefficients, from 0.077 to 0.114. Under four operating conditions, qualitative comparisons are made between experimental and numerical cavitation patterns, as visualized by a high-speed camera and described as isosurfaces of the vapour volume fraction ctv = 0.1. It is shown that the simulation can truly represent the development of the attached sheet cavitation in the impeller. At the same time, the curves for the drops of the head coefficients obtained from experiments and calculations are also quantitatively compared, which shows that the decline of the head coefficients at every flow coefficient is correctly captured, and the prediction accuracy is high. In addition, the detailed analysis is made on the vapour volume fraction contours on the plane of span is 0.5 and the loading distributions around the blade section at the midspan. It is shown that the FBM model and the modified Zwart model are effective for the numerical simulation of the cavitating flow in centrifugal pumps. The analysis results can also be used as the basis for the further research of the attached sheet cavitation and the improvement of centrifugal pumps.
In order to evaluate the effects of mesh generation techniques and grid convergence on pump performance in centrifugal pump model, three widely used mesh styles including structured hexahedral, unstructured tetrahedral and hybrid prismatic/tetrahedral meshes were generated for a centrifugal pump model. And quantitative grid convergence was assessed based on a grid convergence index(GCI), which accounts for the degree of grid refinement. The structured, unstructured or hybrid meshes are found to have certain difference for velocity distributions in impeller with the change of grid cell number. And the simulation results have errors to different degrees compared with experimental data. The GCI-value for structured meshes calculated is lower than that for the unstructured and hybrid meshes. Meanwhile, the structured meshes are observed to get more vortexes in impeller passage.Nevertheless, the hybrid meshes are found to have larger low-velocity area at outlet and more secondary vortexes at a specified location than structured meshes and unstructured meshes.
The size of impeller reflux holes for centrifugal pump has influence on the pressure distribution of front and rear shrouds and rear pump chamber, as well as energy characteristics of whole pump and axial force. Low specific-speed centrifugal pump with Q=12.5 m3/h, H=60 m, n=2950 r/min was selected to be designed with eight axial reflux balance holes with 4.5 mm in diameter. The simulated Q-H curve and net positive suction head(NPSH) were in good agreement with experimental results, which illustrated that centrifugal pump with axial reflux balance holes was superior in the cavitation characteristic; however, it showed to little superiority in head and efficiency. The pressure in rear pump chamber at 0.6 times rate flow is 29.36% of pressure difference between outlet and inlet, which reduces to 29.10% at rate flow and 28.33% at 1.4 times rate flow. As the whole, the pressure distribution on front and rear shrouds from simulation results is not a standard parabola, and axial force decreases as flow rate increases. Radical reflux balance holes chosen to be 5.2 mm and 5.9 mm in diameter were further designed with other hydraulic parts unchanged. With structural grids adopted for total flow field, contrast numerical simulation on internal flow characteristics was conducted based on momentum equations and standard turbulence model(κ-ε). It is found that axial force of pump with radical reflux balance holes of5.2 mm and 5.9 mm in diameter is significantly less than that with radical reflux balance holes of 4.5 mm in diameter. Better axial force balance is obtained as the ratio of area of reflux balance holes and area of sealing ring exceeds 6.
The inner flow analysis of centrifugal pumps has gradually become an important issue for the hydraulic design and performance improvement.Nowadays,CFD simulation toolbox of pump inner flow mainly contains commercial tools and open source tools.There are some defects for commercial CFD software for the numerical simulation of 3-D turbulent internal flow in pump,especially in capturing the flow characteristics under the off-design operating conditions.Additionally,it is difficult for researchers to do further investigation because of the undeclared source.Therefore,an open source software like Open Field Operation and Manipulation （OpenFOAM） is increasingly popular with researchers from all over the world.In this paper,a new computational study was implemented based on the original solver and was used to directly simulate the steady-state inner flow in a double blades pump,with the specific speed is 111.In order to disclose the characteristics deeply,three research schemes were conducted.The ratios （） of the flow rate are 0.8,1.0 and 1.2,respectively.The simulation results were verified with the Particle Imaging Velocimetry （PIV） experimental results,and the numerical calculation results agree well with the experimental data.Meanwhile,the phenomena of flow separation under the off-design operating conditions are well captured by OpenFOAM.The results indicate that OpenFOAM possesses obvious strong predominance in computing the internal flow field of pump.The analysis results can also be used as the basis for the further research and the improvement of centrifugal pump.
LIU Hou-linREN YunWANG KaiWU Deng-haoRU Wei-minTAN Ming-gao
Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technology was used to study the unsteady internal flow in a double-blade centrifugal pump (DBCP) impeller at the design flow rate.Relative velocity distributions and turbulence intensity distributions in the DBCP impeller at six phase conditions were obtained.And mean dimensionless relative velocity,turbulence intensity,mean absolute flow angle,mean relative flow angle,mean dynamic pressure and mean angular momentum distributions at the different radii of impeller were calculated.Results show that from impeller inlet to impeller outlet,turbulence intensities gradually decrease.With the increase of radius r,mean dimensionless relative velocity first decreases and then increases,while variation tendencies of mean absolute flow angle and mean dynamic pressure are the opposite.With the increase of radius r,turbulence intensity and mean relative flow angle first decrease,then increase,and then decrease,while mean angular momentum gradually increases.
