scholarly journals Unsteady Pressure Pulsation and Rotating Stall Characteristics in a Centrifugal Pump with Slope Volute

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 710791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Zhang ◽  
Minguan Yang ◽  
Bo Gao ◽  
Zhong Li ◽  
Dan Ni

Unsteady flow structures can lead to severe vibration in centrifugal pump if the eigenfrequency of the rotor is equal to excitation frequency. In order to reduce rotor-stator interaction in centrifugal pump, a special slope volute was proposed. This paper explores the use of numerical simulation method to illustrate unsteady pressure pulsation and rotating stall characteristics under 0.05ΦN–1.4ΦN working conditions. Spectrums of pressure pulsation signals at different flow rates were analyzed. Relative velocity distributions interior blade channels were also studied to clarify correlation between flow structure and pressure spectrum. At high flow rates, predominant components in pressure spectrums always correspond to blade passing frequency ( fBPF). With decreasing of flow rate, partial flow separates from suction side of blade at 0.6ΦN, but the separate structure has little impact on pressure spectrum. From 0.8ΦN to 0.6ΦN, peak values in pressure spectrums are still located at fBPF. At rotating stall working conditions, multiple vortex structures exist in impeller, which develop with rotating impeller showing intensive unsteady properties. And partial blade channels are blocked severely. Due to the unsteady stall cell structure, stall frequencies are generated in pressure spectrum, and the excitation frequencies are different at variable flow rates.

Author(s):  
Ning Zhang ◽  
Bo Gao ◽  
Chao Li ◽  
Dan Ni ◽  
Guoping Li

Effects of the staggered blades on unsteady pressure pulsations of a centrifugal pump with a specific speed ns=147 are investigated by the numerical simulation method. The obtained results are compared with the original blades. To clarify the resulting effects, eight monitoring points are used to extract pressure signals at three typical working conditions, and component at the blade passing frequency fBPF is emphasized. Results show that the pump efficiency and head will be reduced by the staggered blades, and at the nominal flow rate, the reduction is about 1.5% from comparison with the original blades. For all the eight points, the staggered blades contribute to the reduction of pressure amplitudes at fBPF when the pump works at three flow rates. The averaged reduction is 15.5% at the nominal flow rate. However, the negative effect on the second harmonic of fBPF will be caused by the staggered blades, and the corresponding pressure amplitude will increase at 2fBPF. It means that the pressure pulsation energy will be redistributed among the discrete components in pressure spectrum by the staggered blades. From the TKE distribution, it is found that the TKE values on the blade pressure side will be significantly affected by the staggered blades.


Author(s):  
Yongshun Zeng ◽  
Min Yang ◽  
Yuqing Zhai ◽  
Zhifeng Yao ◽  
Fujun Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract The pressure pulsation due to rotor-stator interaction (RSI) is unavoidable for high-speed centrifugal pump when operating under different conditions. The frequency components of pressure pulsation in the vaneless region are the most complex, and the pressure pulsation characteristic plays an important role in pump structural stress analysis. A numerical simulation method is used to obtain the hydraulic performances of a high-speed centrifugal pump with 9857 r/min at the range of flow rates between 48.1 to 155.0 m3/h. The head and efficiency under different operating conditions have good agreement with experimental results, with maximum deviations in 3.82% and 5.37%, respectively. The results show that the level of the pressure pulsation from the inlet to the outlet of the impeller increased gradually, and the pressure pulsations between the short blades are greater than that between the long and short blades. In the diffuser, the pressure pulsation is the highest near the tongue, whereas it is lower in the region between the two tongues, and this region is defined as the vaneless region. The pressure contours in the vaneless region almost have no change, while they near the tongue are densely distributed, revealing the mechanism of uneven pressure pulsation distribution. Moreover, there is a high radial velocity distribution near the tongue in the vaneless region, indicating that there may be a jet-wake pattern occured in this region.


Author(s):  
Jinfeng Zhang

Abstract A combination of experimental and numerical simulation was carried out to analyze influence of trailing edge position of splitter blade on the pressure fluctuation in low specific pumps with and without splitter blades under different flow rates. Performance experiments and PIV tests were performed to verify the results of numerical calculation. Several monitor points were placed in the calculation model pump to collect the pressure fluctuation signals, which were processed by Fast Fourier Transform to obtain the frequency results for further analysis. Besides, turbulence intensity and relative velocity distribution were also analyzed in regions of impeller and volute. The results showed that compared with prototype without splitter blade and the splitter blade schemes, when the trailing edge of splitter blade deviates to the suction side of main blade, the maximum pressure pulsation amplitudes are the lowest at different monitoring points of model pump. And the variation of pressure pulsation amplitude in this scheme is relatively stable with the change of flow rates compared with other schemes. Furthermore, the splitter blade scheme with an appropriate trailing edge position has the lowest average turbulence intensity and optimal relative velocity distribution in main flow passage component. Therefore, this paper proposes a reference scheme of the trailing edge position of the splitter blade to effectively decrease predominate pressure pulsation amplitude.


2018 ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiaorui Si ◽  
Qianglei Cui ◽  
Keyu Zhang ◽  
Jianping Yuan ◽  
Gérard Bois

In order to study the flow characteristics of centrifugal pumps when transporting the gas-liquid mixture, water and air were chosen as the working medium. Both numerical simulation and experimental tests were conducted on a centrifugal pump under different conditions of inlet air volume fraction (IAVF). The calculation used URANS k-epsilon turbulence model combined with the Euler-Euler inhomogeneous two-phase model. The air distribution and velocity streamline inside the impeller were obtained to discuss the flow characteristics of the pump. The results show that air concentration is high at the inlet pressure side of the blade, where the vortex will exist, indicating that the gas concentration have a great relationship with the vortex aggregation in the impeller passages. In the experimental works, pump performances were measured at different IAVF and compared with numerical results. Contributions to the centrifugal pump performance degradations were analyzed under different air-water inlet flow condition such as IAVF, bubble size, inlet pressure. Results show that pump performance degradation is more pronounced for low flow rates compared to high flow rates. Finally, pressure pulsation and vibration experiments of the pump model under different IAVF were also conducted. Inlet and outlet transient pressure signals under four IAVF were investigated and pressure pulsation frequency of the monitors is near the blade passing frequency at different IAVF, and when IAVF increased, the lower frequency signal is more and more obvious. Vibration signals at five measuring points were also obtained under different IAVF for various flow rates.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 458-480
Author(s):  
Xiaoqi Jia ◽  
Sheng Yuan ◽  
Zuchao Zhu ◽  
Baoling Cui

Purpose Instantaneous radial force induced from unsteady flow will intensify vibration noise of the centrifugal pump, especially under off-design working conditions, which will affect safety reliability of pump operation in severe cases. This paper aims to conduct unsteady numerical computation on one centrifugal pump; thus, unsteady fluid radial force upon the impeller and volute is obtained, so as to study the evolution law of instantaneous radial force, the internal relationship between radial force and pressure pulsation, the relationship among each composition of radial force that the impeller received and the influence of leakage rate of front and back chamber on radial force. Design/methodology/approach The unsteady numerical simulation with SST k-ω turbulence model was carried out for a low specific-speed centrifugal pump using computational fluid dynamics codes FLUENT. The performance tests and pressure tests were conducted by a closed loop system. The performance curves and the pressure distribution from numerical simulation agree with that of the experiment conducted. The unsteady pressure distributions and the instantaneous radial forces induced from unsteady flow were analyzed under different flow rates. Contribution degrees of three components of the radial force on the impeller and the relation between the radial force and leakage rate were analyzed. Findings Radial force on the volute and pressure pulsation on the volute wall have the same distribution tendency, but in contrast to the distribution trend of the radial force on the impeller. In the component of radial force that the impeller received, radial force on the blade accounts for the main position. With the decrease of flow rate, ratio of the radial force on front and back casings will be increased; under large flow rate, vortex and flow blockage at volute section will enhance the pressure and radial force fluctuation greatly, and the pulsation degree may be much more intense than that of a smaller flow rate. Originality/value This paper revealed the relation of the radial force and the pressure pulsation. Meanwhile, contribution degrees of three components of the radial force on the impeller under different working conditions as well as the relation between the radial force and leakage rate of front and rear chambers were analyzed.


Author(s):  
Chengshuo Wu ◽  
Wenqi Zhang ◽  
Peng Wu ◽  
Jiale Yi ◽  
Haojie Ye ◽  
...  

Abstract In this paper, the effects of modifying the blade pressure side on unsteady pressure pulsation and flow structures in a low specific speed centrifugal pump are carried out by experimental and CFD. Seven monitor points are arranged in the circumferential direction of the impeller outlet to capture the pressure signals in the volute at the flow rate of 0.2-1.6Qd. Results show that blade PS modification introduced here can significantly alleviate the amplitude of pressure pulsation at blade passing frequency in all concerned operation conditions. The volute domain is replaced by an even outlet region for CFD analysis to study the effects on internal flow field. The SST turbulence model is adopted for steady-state simulation while the DDES based on the SST approach is adopted for transient simulation. Results show that local velocity fluctuation is the dominant reason for pressure pulsation in the volute. After PS modification, the relative velocity distribution at impeller outlet is more uniform and the intensity of shedding vortex at the blade trailing edge decreases significantly. The change of internal flow structure improves the uniformity of circumferential velocity distribution at downstream of impeller outlet, which leads to the decrease of pressure fluctuation amplitude in the volute. Meanwhile, the Local Euler Head distribution and the blade loading of PS are presented and compared. Results show that the reduction of pressure pulsation attributes to the more uniform energy distribution at impeller outlet which is achieved by actively unloading the PS of the modified blades.


Author(s):  
Taiki Takamine ◽  
Satoshi Watanabe ◽  
Daichi Furukawa ◽  
Hiroyoshi Watanabe ◽  
Kazuyoshi Miyagawa

Rotating stall phenomenon frequently causes the troubles such as vibrations acting on the shaft system and reduces the reliability of turbomachines. In the present study, the diffuser rotating stall in a three-stage centrifugal pump was experimentally studied. Special emphasises were placed on the geometrical conditions; an axial offset of rotor against the stationary part, which might be unavoidable due to accumulation of geometrical tolerances and assembling errors., and the radial clearances of annular leakage paths which increases the thru-flow rate at the impellers and the first and second stage diffusers. As a result, with the rotor axial offset to the suction side, the rotating stall appeared only at the third stage diffuser, while with that to the discharge side, the rotating stall was more significant. By enlarging the leakage flow passages at the inter-stage bush and the balancing flow channel, the onset range of rotating stall became narrower in the first and second stage diffusers, which was well explained by the increase of the thru-flow rate. On the other hand, with the enlarged leakage passage at the liner ring, the onset range became slightly wider.


Author(s):  
Ran Tao ◽  
Zhengwei Wang

Undesirable flow regime occurs at partial-load conditions of the centrifugal pump. Flow separates at the leading edge and pulses in the blade channel with complex stall cell transfer law. The passing capability of the blade channel becomes important when rotating stall happens. In this study, the blade channel number influence on the flow stability in a centrifugal pump impeller was studied by unsteady flow simulations after numerical-experimental verification. The 5-, 6-, and 7-blade impellers were discussed under the same partial-load flow rate condition and the same rotating speed. Results show that the internal flow pattern was strongly influenced by the blade channel number. Periodic half-blockage was observed in the 5-blade impeller. Alternating stall with three stalled and three well-behaved channels existed in the 6-blade impeller. Complex aperiodic flow pattern occurred in the 7-blade impeller with the well-behaved, half-blocked, and fully stalled passages were all observed with stall cell transfer. The different flow regime caused different pressure pulsations. In the 5-blade impeller, the inter-channel flow frequencies, which were induced by the fluid extruded from blocked channels flowed into other channels, dominated. In the 6-blade impeller, the pressure pulsations performed low-in-amplitude and high-in-frequency. The flow regime was stable even under the rotating stall. In the 7-blade impeller, the rotating stall frequency dominated. The inter-channel flow frequencies were also obvious. The stable rotating stall pattern does not strongly influence the pressure pulsation and impeller axial and radial forces. The transferring stall cell induces extra mild pressure pulsation and impeller forces. The inter-channel flow adds strong pressure pulsation and impeller forces. When centrifugal pumps are operating at partial-load conditions, the flow characters especially the inter-channel flow caused by half-channel-blockage should be checked to avoid operation instability and security.


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