Laser Velocimeter Measurements in a Centrifugal Flow Pump

1989 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. Miner ◽  
R. J. Beaudoin ◽  
R. D. Flack

A laser velocimeter was used to measure velocities within the impeller and volute of a centrifugal pump. Measurements were made at four circumferential and eight radial positions. Flow rates ranged from 40 to 105 percent of design flow. Blade-to-blade profiles for the four circumferential positions indicate the flow is circumferentially asymmetric around the pump even at the design flow. Blade-to-blade profiles show normal blade loading for 90 percent of the impeller, with reverse and zero loading occurring in the outer 10 percent of the impeller for design flow. Reversed blade loading over greater portions of the impeller is seen at off-design flow. At 40 percent of design flow, recirculating flow within the impeller was found. Axial traverses across the impeller show the radial velocity profile skewed toward the hub surface at the inlet and away from the hub surface at the exit. The stagnation point on the tongue moved from the outside to the inside as the flow rate was increased from 40 to 105 percent of design. Values for slip range from 0.96 to 0.71 from the inlet to the exit.

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 173-181
Author(s):  
Tong-Miin Liou ◽  
Meng-Yu Chen

Laser-Doppler velocimetry (LDV) measurements are presented of relative mean velocity and turbulence intensity components inside the impeller passage of a centrifugal fan with twelve backward curved blades at design, under-design, and over-design flow rates. Additional LDV measurements were also performed at the volute outlet to examine the uniformity of the outlet flow for the three selected flow rates. Complementary flow visualization results in the tongue region are further presented. It is found that the number of characteristic flow regions and the average turbulence level increase with decreasing air flow rate. For the case of under-design flow rate, there are a through-flow region on the suction side, a reverse flow region on the pressure side, and a shear layer region in between. The corresponding average turbulence intensity is as high as 9.1% of blade tip velocity.


Author(s):  
Daisaku Sakaguchi ◽  
Hironobu Ueki ◽  
Masahiro Ishida ◽  
Hiroshi Hayami

Low solidity circular cascade diffuser abbreviated by LSD was proposed by Senoo et al. showing a high blade loading or a high lift coefficient without stall even under small flow rate conditions. These high performances were achieved by that the flow separation on the suction surface of the LSD blade was successfully suppressed by the secondary flow formed along the side walls. The higher performance of the LSD was achieved in both pressure recovery and operating range by adopting the tandem cascade because the front blade of the tandem cascade was designed suitably for small flow rates while the rear blade of the tandem cascade was designed suitably for large flow rates. In order to clarify the reason why the tandem cascade could achieve a high pressure recovery in a wide range of flow rate, the flow in the LSD with the tandem cascade is analyzed numerically in the present study by using the commercial CFD code of ANSYS-CFX 13.0. The behavior of the secondary flow is compared between the cases with the single cascade and the tandem one. It is found that the high blade loading of the front blade is achieved at the small flow rate by formation of the favorable secondary flow which suppresses the flow separation on suction surface of the front blade, and the flow separation on pressure surface of the front blade appeared at the design flow rate can be suppressed by the accelerated flow in the gap between the trailing edge of the front blade and the leading edge of the rear blade, resulting in the positive lift coefficient in spite of a large negative angle of attack.


1967 ◽  
Vol 71 (674) ◽  
pp. 128-132
Author(s):  
S. Fujii

Summary:The basic theory of the compressible non-swirling rotational flows through ducts with varying hub radii, associated with the concept of actuator discs, is described. The problem is simplified by considering a single-parameter in the radial velocity profile. Particular attention is given to the combined effects of the taper of inside walls and also of compressibility on the radial velocity and the axial velocity profile. The derived ordinary differential equation with non-homogeneous terms can be reduced to the well-known formula of classical actuator disc theories for the cylindrical passage. A numerical example is also presented.


1991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald D. Flack ◽  
Steven M. Miner ◽  
Ronald J. Beaudoin

Turbulence profiles were measured in a centrifugal pump with an impeller with backswept blades using a two directional laser velocimeter. Data presented includes radial, tangential, and cross product Reynolds stresses. Blade to blade profiles were measured at four circumferential positions and four radii within and one radius outside the four bladed impeller. The pump was tested in two configurations; with the impeller running centered within the volute, and with the impeller orbiting with a synchronous motion (ε/r2 = 0.016). Flow rates ranged from 40% to 106% of the design flow rate. Variation in profiles among the individual passages in the orbiting impeller were found. For several regions the turbulence was isotropic so that the cross product Reynolds stress was low. At low flow rates the highest cross product Reynolds stress was near the exit. At near design conditions the lowest cross product stress was near the exit, where uniform flow was also observed. Also, near the exit of the impeller the highest turbulence levels were seen near the tongue. For the design flow rate, inlet turbulence intensities were typically 9% and exit turbulence intensities were 6%. For 40% flow capacity the values increased to 18% and 19%, respectively. Large local turbulence intensities correlated with separated regions. The synchronous orbit did not increase the random turbulence, but did affect the turbulence in the individual channels in a systematic pattern.


Author(s):  
Takaharu Tanaka

There is a correlation between the efficiency of the pump to the head produced. On the axial flow pump, whose efficiency characteristic is favorable, the pressure head gradient between the impeller inlet and the outlet sections, at an equivalent flow rate, may become larger than that for the less favorable axial flow pump. This fundamental interrelation may be held in the flow passage regardless to the flow rate whichever they are operated at design or off design flow rate. There may be a direct correlation between the efficiency of an axial flow pump and the ratio of the discharge valve cross section divided by the pipeline cross section. The smaller this ratio is the better the pressure head gradient is for the same flow rates. This ratio may be useful to estimate relative grade of heads, pressure head gradients, internal flow conditions, and efficiency characteristics among axial flow pumps.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 168781401988947
Author(s):  
Xiaohui Duan ◽  
Fangping Tang ◽  
Wenyong Duan ◽  
Wei Zhou ◽  
Lijian Shi

Pressure and vibration displacement value are relatively measured by 14 pressure sensors and 2 vibration sensors distributing inside the tank-type model axial flow pump device under different flow rates. By comparison, it is found that the pressure pulsation on the inlet of the impeller is the main cause of hydraulic induced vibration of the pump device, and it is found to have similar amplitude trend with the vertical vibration as the flow rates increases and large correlation coefficient with the horizontal vibration under high flow rates through time-domain analysis. By frequency-domain analysis, it is found that the main frequency of pressure pulsation is three multiplies of the shaft frequency, but it is one multiplies of vertical vibration, and it changes from one multiplies to three multiplies of horizontal vibration. Combining with the analysis of phase-flow rates characteristics of both pressure pulsation and vibration, it is concluded that, for the horizontal vibration, the frequency ingredient of one multiplies ranging from low to high flow rates and three multiplies removing from unstable and high flow rates zone are possibly induced by pressure pulsation on the inlet of impeller, while for the vertical vibration, the frequency ingredient of one multiplies under design flow rates and high flow rates are possibly induced by pressure pulsation on the inlet of impeller. Both the horizontal and vertical vibrations with frequency of two multiplies have little relationship with the pressure pulsation on the inlet of impeller.


1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. Flack ◽  
S. M. Miner ◽  
R. J. Beaudoin

Turbulence profiles were measured in a centrifugal pump with an impeller with backswept blades using a two-directional laser velocimeter. Data presented include radial, tangential, and cross product Reynolds stresses. Blade-to-blade profiles were measured at four circumferential positions and four radii within and one radius outside the four-bladed impeller. The pump was tested in two configurations: with the impeller running centered within the volute, and with the impeller orbiting with a synchronous motion (ε/r2 = 0.016). Flow rates ranged from 40 to 106 percent of the design flow rate. Variation in profiles among the individual passages in the oribiting impeller were found. For several regions the turbulence was isotropic so that the cross product Reynolds stress was low. At low flow rates the highest cross product Reynolds stress was near the exit. At near-design conditions the lowest cross product stress was near the exit, where uniform flow was also observed. Also, near the exit of the impeller the highest turbulence levels were seen near the tongue. For the design flow rate, inlet turbulence intensities were typically 9 percent and exit turbulence intensities were 6 percent. For 40 percent flow capacity the values increased to 18 and 19 percent, respectively. Large local turbulence intensities correlated with separated regions. The synchronous orbit did not increase the random turbulence, but did affect the turbulence in the individual channels in a systematic pattern.


Author(s):  
Fang-Ping Tang ◽  
Chao Liu ◽  
Ji-Ren Zhou ◽  
Hua Yang ◽  
Li Cheng

In this study, an axial flow pump impeller without guide vanes is experimentally investigated. The impeller used in the experiments consists of four blades. The particle image velocimetry technique and a five-hole probe have been used. Measurements of flow velocities in the outer part of the impeller have been made. PIV measurements have been realized in 12 meridian planes between blade-to-blade for design and off-design operating conditions. The meridian velocity is obtained with phase averaged method and the total circumferential mean velocity is obtained with an arithmetical average over the 12 circumferential data. The calculation is based on the CFX-TASC flow CFD code solving the three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equation with RNG k–ε model of turbulence. The paper focuses on the comparisons of the results. Difference for the flow field between numerical and experimental results is small at large and design flow rate, while big difference occurs at small flow rate. It indicates that the numerical model is not suitable for separation flow.


1995 ◽  
Vol 117 (4) ◽  
pp. 602-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Pinarbasi ◽  
M. W. Johnson

Detailed measurements have been taken of the three-dimensional velocity field within the vaneless diffuser of a backswept low speed centrifugal compressor using hot-wire anemometry. A 16 percent below and an 11 percent above design flow rate were used in the present study. Results at both flow rates show how the blade wake mixes out more rapidly than the passage wake. Strong secondary flows inherited from the impeller at the higher flow rate delay the mixing out of the circumferential velocity variations, but at both flow rates these circumferential variations are negligible at the last measurement station. The measured tangential/radial flow angle is used to recommend optimum values for the vaneless space and vane angle for design of a vaned diffuser.


Author(s):  
Francois G. Louw ◽  
Theodor W. von Backström ◽  
Sybrand J. van der Spuy

Large axial flow fans are used in forced draft air cooled heat exchangers (ACHEs). Previous studies have shown that adverse operating conditions cause certain sectors of the fan, or the fan as a whole to operate at very low flow rates, thereby reducing the cooling effectiveness of the ACHE. The present study is directed towards the experimental and numerical analyses of the flow in the vicinity of an axial flow fan during low flow rates. This is done to obtain the global flow structure up and downstream of the fan. A near-free-vortex fan, designed for specific application in ACHEs, is used for the investigation. Experimental fan testing was conducted in a British Standard 848, type A fan test facility, to obtain the fan characteristic. Both steady-state and time-dependent numerical simulations were performed, depending on the operating condition of the fan, using the Realizable k-ε turbulence model. Good agreement is found between the numerically and experimentally obtained fan characteristic data. Using data from the numerical simulations, the time and circumferentially averaged flow field is presented. At the design flow rate the downstream fan jet mainly moves in the axial and tangential direction, as expected for a free-vortex design criteria, with a small amount of radial flow that can be observed. As the flow rate through the fan is decreased, it is evident that the down-stream fan jet gradually shifts more diagonally outwards, and the region where reverse flow occur between the fan jet and the fan rotational axis increases. At very low flow rates the flow close to the tip reverses through the fan, producing a small recirculation zone as well as swirl at certain locations upstream of the fan.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document