Experimental Investigation of the Steady and Unsteady Relative Flow in a Model Centrifugal Impeller Passage

1994 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Abramian ◽  
J. H. G. Howard

The behavior of the relative flow in centrifugal turbomachines is extremely complex due to the existence of various fluid dynamic phenomena and their interaction. At design and off-design operating conditions, the relative flow is subject to stationary unsteadiness, which includes flow separation and wakes associated with passage pressure gradients, secondary flows, and boundary layer stability. It may also be subject to periodic unsteadiness, as are the rotating stall and cyclic flow phenomena induced by the casing. This paper describes detailed measurements of the relative velocity field in a very low specific speed centrifugal pump impeller (Ns = 515). Measurements were conducted by means of a recently developed rotating laser-Doppler anemometry system. Detailed quantitative descriptions of the mean and fluctuating components of the primary and secondary velocity fields are presented for an impeller without volute at design, 50 percent design, and shut-off conditions. The flow pattern in this low specific speed impeller with high blade loading is dominated by the relative eddy (a phenomenon also present in potential flow), which has suppressed suction side separation. The cyclic variation of the impeller exit flow, induced by the volute at low flow rates, is also presented for an impeller fitted with a volute.

1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Abramian ◽  
J. H. G. Howard

The behaviour of the relative flow in centrifugal turbomachines is extremely complex due to the existence of various fluid dynamic phenomena and their interaction. At design and off-design operating conditions, the relative flow is subject to stationary unsteadiness which includes flow separation and wakes associated with passage pressure gradients, secondary flows, and boundary layer stability. It may also be subject to periodic unsteadiness such as is the rotating stall and cyclic flow phenomena induced by the casing. This paper describes detailed measurements of the relative velocity field in a very low specific speed centrifugal pump impeller (Ns=515). Measurements were conducted by means of a recently developed rotating laser-Doppler anemometry system. Detailed quantitative description of the mean and fluctuating components of the primary and secondary velocity fields are presented for an impeller without volute at design, 50% design and shut-off conditions. The flow pattern in this low specific speed impeller with high blade loading is dominated by the relative eddy (a phenomenon also present in potential flow) which has suppressed suction side separation. When the impeller was fitted with a volute, the cyclic variation of the impeller exit flow, induced by the volute at low flow rates, is also presented.


Author(s):  
M. Abramian ◽  
J. H. G. Howard

The behaviour of the relative flow in centrifugal turbomachines is extremely complex due to the existence of various fluid dynamic phenomena and their interaction. At design and off-design operating conditions, the relative flow is subject to stationary unsteadiness which includes the flow separation and wakes associated with passage pressure gradients, secondary flows, and boundary layer stability. It is also subject to periodic unsteadiness from the rotating stall and the cyclic flow phenomena induced by the casing. This paper describes the mechanical and optical design of a rotating laser-Doppler anemometry system which allows direct measurement of the relative flow by means of an optical de-rotator. By isolating the impeller rotational frequency from the sampling frequency, it allows direct time-average measurements of the stationary behaviour of the relative flow along with the ensemble (phase)-average measurements of its periodic behaviour. Its success is demonstrated with measurements conducted in a low specific speed centrifugal impeller fitted with a single volute. Sample results of the time-averaged blade-to-blade variation of total relative velocities along with their associated turbulence intensities are reported. The (periodic) cyclic variations of the impeller exit flow, induced by the volute at low flow rates, are also presented for the suction and pressure sides.


1994 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Abramian ◽  
J. H. G. Howard

The behavior of the relative flow in centrifugal turbomachines is extremely complex due to the existence of various fluid dynamic phenomena and their interaction. At design and off-design operating conditions, the relative flow is subject to stationary unsteadiness, which includes the flow separation and wakes associated with passage pressure gradients, secondary flows, and boundary layer stability. It is also subject to periodic unsteadiness from the rotating stall and the cyclic flow phenomena induced by the casing. This paper describes the mechanical and optical design of a rotating laser-Doppler anemometry system, which allows direct measurement of the relative flow by means of an optical derotator. By isolating the impeller rotational frequency from the sampling frequency, it allows direct time-averaged measurements of the stationary behavior of the relative flow along with the ensemble (phase)-averaged measurements of its periodic behavior. Its success is demonstrated with measurements conducted in a low specific speed centrifugal impeller fitted with a single volute. Sample results of the time-averaged blade-to-blade variation of total relative velocities along with their associated turbulence intensities are reported. The (periodic) cyclic variations of the impeller exit flow, induced by the volute at low flow rates, are also presented for the suction and pressure sides.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Checcucci ◽  
Federica Sazzini ◽  
Michele Marconcini ◽  
Andrea Arnone ◽  
Mario Coneri ◽  
...  

This work provides a detailed description of the fluid dynamic design of a low specific-speed industrial pump centrifugal impeller. The main goal is to guarantee a certain value of the specific-speed number at the design flow rate, while satisfying geometrical constraints and industrial feasibility. The design procedure relies on a modern optimization technique such as an Artificial-Neural-Network-based approach (ANN). The impeller geometry is parameterized in order to allow geometrical variations over a large design space. The computational framework suitable for pump optimization is based on a fully viscous three-dimensional numerical solver, used for the impeller analysis. The performance prediction of the pump has been obtained by coupling the CFD analysis with a 1D correlation tool, which accounts for the losses due to the other components not included in the CFD domain. Due to both manufacturing and geometrical constraints, two different optimized impellers with 3 and 5 blades have been developed, with the performance required in terms of efficiency and suction capability. The predicted performance of both configurations were compared with the measured head and efficiency characteristics.


Author(s):  
Ning Zhang ◽  
Minguan Yang ◽  
Bo Gao ◽  
Zhong Li ◽  
Dan Ni

In centrifugal pump, due to intense rotor-stator interaction, high amplitude pressure pulsating would be induced, and it has a crucial influence on the stable operating of the pump. In this paper, a low specific speed centrifugal pump is investigated to illustrate unsteady flow within the centrifugal pump. Pressure pulsation signals are attained by mounting 20 monitoring points along the spiral volute, covering all the interested region of the model pump. FFT (Fast Fourier Transform algorithm) is applied to analyze the time-domain pressure signals. Results show that in pressure spectra, evident peaks at blade passing frequency fBPF together with its high harmonics can be identified, and the amplitudes are closely associated with operating conditions of the model pump and the positions of the monitoring points. At nominal flow rate, four vortical regions with high amplitude are captured inside the model pump. And the unsteady vortical structure at the near tongue region is related to the relative position of the impeller with respect to the tongue, and the upstream effect of the volute tongue significantly affects the vorticity distribution on the blade pressure side. At off-design conditions, the interaction pattern between the vortical structure and the volute tongue is significantly affected compared with that at the rated condition, as to the upstream effect of the tongue. At high flow rate, partial vortex would separate from the main vortex, but at low flow rate, the cutting and impingement effects of the tongue are much weaker due to almost all the vortex moving to the narrow side of the tongue. Based on the analysis of rotor-stator interaction in the model pump, some conclusions could be obtained. Pressure amplitudes at fBPF are associated with the positions of monitoring points and operating conditions of the model pump. Vorticity magnitude at blade exit increases as the impeller passes the volute tongue. And the fluid-dynamic blade-volute interaction is dominated by the vorticity shedding from blade trailing edge and their impingement on the volute tongue with subsequent cutting and distortion. And high pressure amplitude is generated with the corresponding high vorticity magnitude observed. So the intense interaction between flow structures (jet-wake pattern) and volute tongue is crucial to unsteady pressure pulsation. Thus, to lower pressure pulsation amplitude and fluid dynamic forces, controlling the vortical structure at blade trailing edge is an effective method.


Author(s):  
Can Kang ◽  
Ning Mao ◽  
Chen Pan ◽  
Yang Zhu ◽  
Bing Li

A low-specific-speed centrifugal pump equipped with long and short blades is studied. Emphasis is placed on the pump performance and inner flow characteristics at low flow rates. Each short blade is intentionally shifted towards the back surface of the neighboring long blade, and the outlet parts of the short blades are uniformly shortened. Unsteady numerical simulation is conducted to disclose inner flow patterns associated with the modified design. Thereby, a comparison is enabled between the two schemes featured by different short blades. Both practical operation data and numerical results support that the deviation and cutting of the short blades can eliminate the positive slope of pump head curve at low flow rates. Therefore, the modification of short blades improves the pump operation stability. Due to the shortening of the outlet parts of the short blades, velocity distributions between impeller outlet and radial diffuser inlet exhibit explicitly altered circumferential flow periodicity. Pressure fluctuations in the radial diffuser are complex in terms of diversified periodicity and amplitudes. Flow rate influences pressure fluctuations in the radial diffuser considerably. As flow rate decreases, the regularity of the orbit of hydraulic loads exerted upon the impeller collapses while hydraulic loads exerted upon the short blades remain circumferentially periodic.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Vermunt ◽  
Martijn Van Der Schoot ◽  
Bruurs Bruurs ◽  
Bart Van Esch

2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (5) ◽  
pp. 786-795 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshiki Yoshida ◽  
Yoshinobu Tsujimoto ◽  
Goh Morimoto ◽  
Hiroki Nishida ◽  
Shigeki Morii

This paper reports an experimental investigation of the rotordynamic fluid force and moment on a centrifugal impeller with three types of wear-ring seals; i.e., a face seal and two types of toothed seals. The impeller is equipped with a vaneless diffuser. Rotordynamic fluid forces and moments on the impeller in whirling motion were measured directly by using four-axis force sensor. Unsteady pressures were measured at several locations in the diffuser. It was found that, (1) at low flow rate, the fluid force and fluid force moment become maximum at a certain whirling speed caused by a coupling between the whirl motion and vaneless diffuser rotating stall and (2) the seal geometry with axial seal affects the direction of the coupled fluid force relative to the direction of eccentricity through the change in the unsteady leakage flow due to the whirl.


2006 ◽  
Vol 72 (722) ◽  
pp. 2481-2487
Author(s):  
Masahiro MIYABE ◽  
Akinori FURUKAWA ◽  
Hideaki MAEDA ◽  
Isamu UMEKI ◽  
Yoshinori JITTANI

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