scholarly journals The Effect of Viscosity on Performance of a Low Specific Speed Centrifugal Pump

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rouhollah Torabi ◽  
Seyyed Ahmad Nourbakhsh

Centrifugal pump delivery head and flow rate drop effectively during the pumping of viscous fluids. Several methods and correlations have been developed to predict reduction rate in centrifugal pump performance when handling viscous fluids, but their results are not in very good agreement with each other. In this study, a common industrial low specific speed pump, which is extensively used in different applications, is studied. The entire pump, including impeller, volute, pipes, front and rear sidewall gaps, and balance holes, is simulated in Computational Fluid Dynamics and 3D full Navier Stokes equations are solved. CFD results are compared with experimental data such as pump performance curves, static pressure in casing, and disk friction loss. Dimensionless angular velocity and leakage rate are investigated in sidewall gap and efficiency variation due to viscosity is studied. The results demonstrate that the behavior of the fluid in sidewall gap is strictly sensitive to viscosity. Increasing viscosity improves the volumetric efficiency by reducing internal leakage through wear rings and balance holes, causing, however, a significant fall in the disk and overall efficiency. Results lead to some recommendations for designing centrifugal pumps which may be used in transferring viscous fluids.

Author(s):  
M DaqiqShirazi ◽  
R Torabi ◽  
A Riasi ◽  
SA Nourbakhsh

In this paper, the flow in the impeller sidewall gap of a low specific speed centrifugal pump is analyzed to study the effect of wear ring clearance and the resultant through-flow on flow field in this cavity and investigate the overall efficiency of the pump. Centrifugal pumps are commonly subject to a reduction in the flow rate and volumetric efficiency due to abrasive liquids or working conditions, since the wear rings are progressively worn, the internal leakage flow is increased. In the new operating point, the overall efficiency of the pump cannot be predicted simply by using the pump characteristic curves. The flow field is simulated with the use of computational fluid dynamics and the three-dimensional full Navier–Stokes equations are solved using CFX software. In order to verify the numerical simulations, static pressure field in volute casing and pump performance curves are compared with the experimental measurements. The results show that, for the pump with minimum wear ring clearance, the disk friction efficiency is the strongest factor that impairs the overall efficiency. Therefore, when the ring clearance is enlarged more than three times, although volumetric efficiency decreases effectively but the reduction in overall efficiency is remarkably smaller due to improvement in the disk friction losses.


2010 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 434-437
Author(s):  
Yuan Yi Liu ◽  
Rui Guang Li

Based on the Renault-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and a standard turbulence model, the different clearance of the outer edge on the impeller and the draft-tube is simulated by the commercial software CFX, in order to achieve optimal performance. The velocity distributions and pressure distributions within the stamping and welding multistage centrifugal pumps are analyzed. The reasonable clearance value which impact on its performance and properties have been discovered. This paper is helpful to improve the design theory of stamping and welding multistage centrifugal pumps.


2011 ◽  
Vol 354-355 ◽  
pp. 615-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Li ◽  
Wei Dong Shi ◽  
Ting Jiang ◽  
Yan Xu ◽  
Tong Tong Li

In order to research the effect of the blade wrap angle and outlet angle on the hydraulic performance of the low-specific speed sewage pump, the Reynolds time-averaged Navier-Stokes equations was discretized based on the finite volume method, and the modified k-ε turbulence model were chosen in FLUENT. Numerical simulation of the internal flow within the centrifugal pump with the specific speed of 60 at different blade wrap angle and outlet angle is carried out. The analysis of the velocity and the turbulent kinetic energy distribution in different cases, and predicts the external characteristics of the several cases based on the loss analysis method. The study results show that the efficiency of pumps increase with decreasing the outlet angle and increasing the wrapping angle at the design of sewage pumps. According to the analysis, changing the blade outlet Angle has much more influence on the performance of the pump than changing the wrap angle.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 678271
Author(s):  
Baocheng Shi ◽  
Jinjia Wei

For numerically simulating 3D solid-liquid turbulent flow in low specific speed centrifugal pumps, there exist several problems including how to design geometrical shape of the calculation model to represent the real pump and how to predict pump performance accurately to guide the design of pump. To solve these problems, four kinds of geometric models were designed. The performance of a low specific speed solid-liquid centrifugal pump was predicted, and the results showed that the improved prediction methods are more accurate than the traditional method. Moreover, the simulation results of the entire flow field of the geometric model including balance holes and the lateral clearances of impeller in which liquid rotates with half speed of impeller are closer to the real situation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massinissa Djerroud ◽  
Guyh Dituba Ngoma ◽  
Walid Ghie

This paper presents the numerical investigation of the effects that the pertinent design parameters, including the blade height, the blade number, the outlet blade angle, the blade width, and the impeller diameter, have on the steady state liquid flow in a three-dimensional centrifugal pump. Three cases were considered for this study: impeller, combined impeller and volute, and combined impeller and diffuser. The continuity and Navier-Stokes equations with the k-ε turbulence model and the standard wall functions were used by means of ANSYS-CFX code. The results achieved reveal that the selected key design parameters have an impact on the centrifugal pump performance describing the pump head, the brake horsepower, and the overall efficiency. To valid the developed approach, the results of numerical simulation were compared with the experimental results considering the case of combined impeller and diffuser.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Yang Yang ◽  
Ling Zhou ◽  
Hongtao Zhou ◽  
Wanning Lv ◽  
Jian Wang ◽  
...  

Marine centrifugal pumps are mostly used on board ship, for transferring liquid from one point to another. Based on the combination of orthogonal testing and numerical simulation, this paper optimizes the structure of a drainage trough for a typical low-specific speed centrifugal pump, determines the priority of the various geometric factors of the drainage trough on the pump performance, and obtains the optimal impeller drainage trough scheme. The influence of drainage tank structure on the internal flow of a low-specific speed centrifugal pump is also analyzed. First, based on the experimental validation of the initial model, it is determined that the numerical simulation method used in this paper is highly accurate in predicting the performance of low-specific speed centrifugal pumps. Secondly, based on the three factors and four levels of the impeller drainage trough in the orthogonal test, the orthogonal test plan is determined and the orthogonal test results are analyzed. This work found that slit diameter and slit width have a large impact on the performance of low-specific speed centrifugal pumps, while long and short vane lap lengths have less impact. Finally, we compared the internal flow distribution between the initial model and the optimized model, and found that the slit structure could effectively reduce the pressure difference between the suction side and the pressure side of the blade. By weakening the large-scale vortex in the flow path and reducing the hydraulic losses, the drainage trough impellers obtained based on orthogonal tests can significantly improve the hydraulic efficiency of low-specific speed centrifugal pumps.


Author(s):  
K M Guleren ◽  
A Pinarbasi

The main goal of the present work is to analyse the numerical simulation of a centrifugal pump by solving Navier-Stokes equations, coupled with the ‘standard k-∊’ turbulence model. The pump consists of an impeller having five curved blades with nine diffuser vanes. The shaft rotates at 890r/min. Flow characteristics are assumed to be stalled in the appropriate region of flowrate levels of 1.31-2.861/s. Numerical analysis techniques are performed on a commercial FLUENT package program assuming steady, incompressible flow conditions with decreasing flowrate. Under stall conditions the flow in the diffuser passage alternates between outward jetting when the low-pass-filtered pressure is high to a reverse flow when the filtered pressure is low. Being below design conditions, there is a consistent high-speed leakage flow in the gap between the impeller and the diffuser from the exit side of the diffuser to the beginning of the volute. Separation of this leakage flow from the diffuser vane causes the onset of stall. As the flowrate decreases both the magnitude of the leakage within the vaneless part of the pump and reverse flow within a stalled diffuser passage increase. As this occurs, the stall-cell size extends from one to two diffuser passages. Comparisons are made with experimental data and show good agreement.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 814108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baocheng Shi ◽  
Jinjia Wei

For numerically simulating 3D solid-liquid turbulent flow in low specific speed centrifugal pumps, the iteration convergence problem caused by complex internal structure and high rotational speed of pump is always a problem for numeral simulation researchers. To solve this problem, the combination of three measures of dynamic underrelaxation factor adjustment, step method, and rotational velocity control means according to residual curves trends of operating parameters was used to improve the numerical convergence. Numeral simulation of 3D turbulent flow in a low specific speed solid-liquid centrifugal pump was performed, and the results showed that the improved solution strategy is greatly helpful to the numerical convergence. Moreover, the 3D turbulent flow fields in pumps have been simulated for the bottom ash-particles with the volume fraction of 10%, 20%, and 30% at the same particle diameter of 0.1 mm. The two-phase calculation results are compared with those of single-phase clean water flow. The calculated results gave the main region of the abrasion of the impeller and volute casing and improve the hydraulic design of the impeller in order to decrease the abrasion and increase the service life of the pump.


2013 ◽  
Vol 694-697 ◽  
pp. 56-60
Author(s):  
Yue Jun Ma ◽  
Ji Tao Zhao ◽  
Yu Min Yang

In the paper, on the basis of three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and the RNG κ-ε turbulence model, adopting Three-dimensional unstructured grid and pressure connection the implicit correction SIMPLEC algorithm, and using MRF model which is supported by Fluent, this paper carries out numerical simulation of the internal flow of the centrifugal pump in different operation points. According to the results of numerical simulation, this paper analyzes the bad flow phenomena of the centrifugal pump, and puts forward suggests about configuration perfected of the centrifugal pump. In addition, this paper is also predicted the experimental value of the centrifugal pump performance, which is corresponding well with the measured value.


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