scholarly journals Numerical Investigation of Periodically Unsteady Pressure Field in a High Power Centrifugal Diffuser Pump

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 159380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji Pei ◽  
Wenjie Wang ◽  
Shouqi Yuan ◽  
Jieyun Mao

Pressure fluctuations are the main factors that can give rise to reliability problems in centrifugal pumps. The periodically unsteady pressure characteristics caused by rotor-stator interaction have been investigated by CFD calculation in a residual heat removal pump. Side chamber flow effect is also considered for the simulation to accurately predict the flow in whole flow passage. The pressure fluctuation results in time and frequency domains were considered for several typical monitoring points in impeller and diffuser channels. In addition, the pressure fluctuation intensity coefficient (PFIC) based on standard deviation was defined on each grid node for entire space and impeller revolution period. The results show that strong pressure fluctuation intensity can be found in the gap between impeller and diffuser. As a source, the fluctuation can spread to the upstream and downstream flow channels as well as the side chamber channels. Meanwhile, strong pressure fluctuation intensity can be found in the discharge tube of the circular casing. In addition, the obvious influence of operational flow rate on the PFIC distribution can be found. The analysis indicates that the pressure fluctuations in the aspects of both frequency and intensity can be used to comprehensively evaluate the unsteady pressure characteristics in centrifugal pumps.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Cao ◽  
Zhengwei Wang ◽  
Yexiang Xiao ◽  
Yongyao Luo

Clearance flows in the sidewall gaps of centrifugal pumps are unsteady as well as main flows in the volute casing and impeller, which may cause vibration and noise, and the corresponding pressure fluctuations are related to the axial clearance size. In this paper, unsteady numerical simulations were conducted to predict the unsteady flows within the entire flow passage of a centrifugal pump operating in the design condition. Pressure fluctuation characteristics in the volute casing, impeller, and sidewall gaps were investigated with three axial clearance sizes. Results show that an axial clearance variation affects the pressure fluctuation characteristics in each flow domain by different degree. The greatest pressure fluctuation occurs at the blade pressure surface and is almost not influenced by the axial clearance variation which has a certainly effect on the pressure fluctuation characteristics around the tongue. The maximum pressure fluctuation amplitude in the sidewall gaps is larger than that in the volute casing, and different spectrum characteristics show up in the three models due to the interaction between the clearance flow and the main flow as well as the rotor-stator interaction. Therefore, clearance flow should be taken into consideration in the hydraulic design of centrifugal pumps.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 929672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji Pei ◽  
Shouqi Yuan ◽  
Wenjie Wang

Sewage centrifugal pumps can operate at different flow rates with variable rotating speeds to meet different performance requirements and achieve certain energy consumption criteria in pipeline systems. In this paper, the unsteady pressure field has been investigated numerically by CFD calculation to evaluate the transient pressure variation in a single-blade pump running with low rotating speeds. Based on the CFD results, the pressure fluctuation intensity was analyzed quantitatively by defining the standard deviation of the pressure fluctuation of a revolution period. The analysis of the results shows that the flow rate can influence the fluctuation intensity distribution obviously, and the same intensity distribution law can be found in the volute domain for the same flow rates with different rotating speeds. Obvious asymmetrical distributions can be observed in both front and back side chamber channels, and the pressure fluctuation intensity in back side chamber is weaker than in front side chamber. This work can obtain the knowledge of unsteady pressure phenomenon for typical flow rates in the low-speed running single-blade pump and can provide basis to optimize and to obtain more reliable pump at variable rotating speeds.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Qi Jia ◽  
Bao-Ling Cui ◽  
Zu-Chao Zhu ◽  
Yu-Liang Zhang

Abstract 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.


Author(s):  
Zhifeng Yao ◽  
Min Yang ◽  
Ruofu Xiao ◽  
Fujun Wang

The unsteady flow field and pressure fluctuations in double-suction centrifugal pumps are greatly affected by the wall roughness of internal surfaces. To determine the wall roughness effect, numerical and experimental investigations were carried out. Three impeller schemes for different wall roughness were solved using detached eddy simulation, and the performance and pressure fluctuations resolved by detached eddy simulation were compared with the experimental data. The results show that the effects of wall roughness on the static performance of a pump are remarkable. The head and efficiency of the tested double-suction centrifugal pump are raised by 2.53% and 6.60% respectively as the wall roughness is reduced by means of sand blasting and coating treatments. The detached eddy simulation method has been proven to be accurate for the prediction of the head and efficiency of the double-suction centrifugal pump with roughness effects. The influence of the roughness on pressure fluctuation is greatly dependent on the location relative to the volute tongue region. For locations close to the volute tongue, the peak-to-peak value of the pressure fluctuations of a wall roughness of Ra = 0.10 mm may be 23.27% larger than the case where Ra = 0.02 mm at design flow rate.


2014 ◽  
Vol 945-949 ◽  
pp. 956-963
Author(s):  
Li Jing Wang ◽  
Ye Yuan ◽  
Lin Xue

The unsteady pressure fluctuation is one of the major factors affecting the operational stability of a fire turbopump. Based on the experimental operation conditions of the turbopump, the inner unsteady flow field in the turbopump is simulated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and the pressure fluctuations at the zones near the turbine suction chamber, the turbine impeller inlet, the turbine outlet and the interface of pump impeller/volute are investigated by time-frequency analysis methods. The results show that high pressure fluctuation can be observed near the interface of turbine impeller-guide vane and the interface of pump impeller–volute caused by rotor-stator interaction (RSI). Moreover, turbine pressure fluctuation frequencies are identified as the 14 times and 26 times of rotating frequency and the fluctuant amplitude depends on the guide vane inlet angle; whereas, pump pressure fluctuation frequencies are observed at the times of the blade passing frequency (BPF), while the frequencies higher than 10 times of BPF have less effect on the pump vibrations. The results of unsteady pressure pulsation could be used to guide the optimum design of the fire turbopump, which is in favor of obtaining more stable performance of the turbopump.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenjie Wang ◽  
Qifan Deng ◽  
Ji Pei ◽  
Jinwei Chen ◽  
Xingcheng Gan

Abstract Pressure fluctuation due to the rotor-stator interaction in turbomachinery is unavoidable, inducing strong vibration and even shortening the lifecycle. The investigation on optimization method of an industrial centrifugal pump was carried out to reduce the pressure fluctuation intensity. Considering the time-consuming transient calculation of unsteady pressure, a novel optimization strategy was proposed by discretizing design variables and genetic algorithm. Four highly related design parameters were chosen, and 40 transient sample cases were generated and simulated using an automatic simulation program. Furthermore, a modified discrete genetic algorithm (MDGA) was proposed to reduce the optimization cost by unsteady simulation. For the benchmark test, the proposed MDGA showed a great advantage over the original genetic algorithm in terms of searching speed and could deal with the discrete variables effectively. After optimization, an improvement in terms of the performance and stability of the inline pump was achieved.


2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji Pei ◽  
Shouqi Yuan ◽  
Friedrich-Karl Benra ◽  
Hans Josef Dohmen

In this paper, the periodically unsteady pressure field caused by rotor-stator interaction has been investigated numerically by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculation to evaluate the transient pressure variation in a single-blade pump for multiconditions. Side chamber flow effect is also considered for the simulation to accurately predict the flow in a whole-flow passage. The strength of the pressure fluctuation is analyzed quantitatively by defining the standard deviation of the pressure fluctuation of a revolution period. The analysis of the results shows that higher pressure fluctuation magnitudes can be observed near the blade pressure side and high gradients of fluctuation magnitudes can be obtained at the trailing edge near the pressure side of the blade. An asymmetrical distribution of fluctuation magnitudes in the volute domain can be clearly obtained. On the cylindrical surface around the impeller outlet, although the absolute pressure value is higher for the Q = 11 l/s condition, the magnitude distribution of fluctuations is lower, and a relatively symmetrical fluctuation distribution is obtained for the Q = 22 l/s condition when clearly asymmetrical distributions of fluctuation magnitude can be observed for the design point and for large flow rates. Obvious periodicity can be observed for the pressure fluctuation magnitude distribution on the circumference with different radii in the volute domain, and some subpeaks and subvalleys can be found. The effects of unsteady flow in the side chambers on the entire passage flow cannot be neglected for accurately predicting the inner flow of the pump. The results of unsteady pressure fluctuation magnitude can be used to guide the optimum design of the single-blade pump to decrease the hydrodynamic unbalance and to obtain more stable performance of the pump.


Processes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ling Bai ◽  
Ling Zhou ◽  
Chen Han ◽  
Yong Zhu ◽  
Weidong Shi

A pump is one of the most important machines in the processes and flow systems. The operation of multistage centrifugal pumps could generate pressure fluctuations and instabilities that may be detrimental to the performance and integrity of the pump. In this paper, a numerical study of the influence of pressure fluctuations and unsteady flow patterns was undertaken in the pump flow channel of three configurations with different diffuser vane numbers. It was found that the amplitude of pressure fluctuation in the diffuser was increased gradually with the increase in number of diffuser vanes. The lower number of diffuser vanes was beneficial to obtain a weaker pressure fluctuation intensity. With the static pressure gradually increasing, the effects of impeller blade passing frequency attenuated gradually, and the effect of diffuser vanes was increased gradually.


2001 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 737-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Wang ◽  
H. Tsukamoto

A two-dimensional unsteady flow was calculated within a whole stage of a diffuser pump to investigate pressure fluctuations due to the interaction between impeller and diffuser vanes by using the vortex method, in which vortices shedding from solid boundary were determined by the basic governing equation. The Petrov-Galerkin Method was applied to yield the solutions that satisfy the boundary conditions in an integral sense, and it improved the stability and accuracy of the numerical solutions greatly. A new scheme was also proposed to improve the unsteady pressure evaluation by a boundary integration method in the rotor-stator interaction problem. Moreover, for a more realistic prediction of the pressure fluctuations, the inlet flow was supposed to change with time so that pumping system may balance. The calculated time-varying flow rate, total hydraulic head rise and pressure fluctuations in the vaned diffuser passage, were compared with the measured and calculated ones by other methods. Calculated unsteady pressure fluctuations in the vaned diffuser passage showed good agreement with the experimental data and the CFD calculated ones.


Author(s):  
Qianqian Li ◽  
Shiyang Li ◽  
Peng Wu ◽  
Bin Huang ◽  
Dazhuan Wu

AbstractDouble-suction centrifugal pumps have been applied extensively in many areas, and the significance of pressure fluctuations inside these pumps with large power is becoming increasingly important. In this study, a double-suction centrifugal pump with a high-demand for vibration and noise was redesigned by increasing the flow uniformity at the impeller discharge, implemented by combinations of more than two parameters. First, increasing the number of the impeller blades was intended to enhance the bounding effect that the blades imposed on the fluid. Subsequently, increasing the radial gap between the impeller and volute was applied to reduce the rotor-stator interaction. Finally, the staggered arrangement was optimized to weaken the efficacy of the interference superposition. Based on numerical simulation, the steady and unsteady characteristics of the pump models were calculated. From the fluctuation analysis in the frequency domain, the dimensionless pressure fluctuation amplitude at the blade passing frequency and its harmonics, located on the monitoring points in the redesigned pumps (both with larger radial gap), are reduced a lot. Further, in the volute of the model with new impellers staggered at 12°, the average value for the dimensionless pressure fluctuation amplitude decreases to 6% of that in prototype pump. The dimensionless root-mean-square pressure contour on the mid-span of the impeller tends to be more uniform in the redesigned models (both with larger radial gap); similarly, the pressure contour on the mid-section of the volute presents good uniformity in these models, which in turn demonstrating a reduction in the pressure fluctuation intensity. The results reveal the mechanism of pressure fluctuation reduction in a double-suction centrifugal pump, and the results of this study could provide a reference for pressure fluctuation reduction and vibration performance reinforcement of double-suction centrifugal pumps and other pumps.


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