Research on the Matching Characteristics of the Impellers and Guide Vanes of Seawater Desalination Pumps with High Capacity and Pressure

This paper presents the matching characteristics of impellers and guide vanes of high capacity and pressure seawater desalination pumps by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The single-stage pump is numerically calculated, and its external characteristics are consistent with the test results of model pump. Taking this scheme as a prototype, the research is carried out from three aspects: (i) the impeller blade outlet width; (ii) the number of impeller and guide vane blades; and (iii) the area ratio of impeller outlet to guide vane inlet. The results indicate that the blade outlet width significantly affects the pump head and efficiency. Appropriately increasing the number of guide vane blades or changing the number of impeller blades can improve efficiency and expand the high-efficiency area. Additionally, increasing the throat area of the guide vane has the opposite effect on the large flow and small flow area of the pump. An optimized hydraulic model design scheme is obtained.

Influence of circumferential annular grooving design of impeller on suspended fluid force of axial flow blood pump

Aiming at insufficient suspension force on the impeller when the hydraulic suspension axial flow blood pump is start at low speed, the impeller suspension stability is poor, and can’t quickly enter the suspended working state. By establishing the mathematical model of the suspension force on the impeller, then the influence of the circumferential groove depth of the impeller on the suspension force is analyzed, and the annular groove depth on the impeller blade in the direction of fluid inlet and outlet was determined as (0.26, 0.02 mm). When the blood pump starts, there is an eccentricity between the impeller and the pump tube, the relationship between the suspension force and the speed of the impeller under different eccentricities is analyzed. Combined with the prototype experiment, the circumferential annular grooving design of the impeller can make the blood pump rotate at about 3500 rpm into the suspension state, when the impeller is at 8000 rpm, the impeller can basically achieve stable suspension at the eccentricity of 0.1 mm in the gravity direction, indicating that the reasonable circumferential annular grooving design of the impeller can effectively improve the suspension hydraulic force of the impeller and improve the stability of the hydraulic suspension axial flow blood pump.

Prediction and investigation between impeller blade shape parameters and performance parameters in CFD and ANN

The blade shape parameters have a remarkable effect on the centrifugal pump performance. In order to reveal the relationship between these parameters and pump performance, a single channel was regarded as the research object to calculate its performance by numerical simulation, and the performance was measured on an experimental rig. The optimized ANN is proposed, and it is proved to be highly accurate. The ANN correlation coefficient of the total response could be above 0.997 after thousands of retaining. The sorts and degrees affecting performance parameters were found out by gray relation analysis. It was found that the blade angles at the leading edge were more influential for reaction force, head and minimum pressure, while the wrap angles had greater impact for efficiency. Furthermore, a multiple linear regression model was established to quantify the weight and trend of the influence of blade shape parameters on performance. The results provide a reference guide for the optimized design of centrifugal impeller to improve pump performance.

Numerical and experimental study in pressure pulsation and vibration of a two-stage centrifugal pump under cavitating condition

Instantaneous cavitating turbulent flow in a two-stage centrifugal pump with diffuser was simulated using a hybrid RANS/LES model and rotating corrected-based cavitation model in this paper. The predicted results of numerical simulation were in good agreement with the experimental results. The mechanism of pressure pulsation in the two-stage centrifugal pump was discussed. Some representative main frequencies of pressure pulsation such as main blade passing frequency, sub-blade passing frequency and intersection frequency of impeller blade and diffuser blade were analyzed systematically. Uncertainty estimation was used to ensure the accuracy of experimental results and it was also used to analyze the variation of pressure pulsation and vibration signals at different positions with the intensification of cavitation degree in the centrifugal pump. According to the results of uncertainty estimation, the center frequency of 1/3 octave band and the root mean square method were used to evaluate the energy change of the pressure pulsation signals and vibration signals at different frequency bands as the cavitation number decreases. The characteristics of pressure pulsation and vibration signals at different positions were analyzed in different frequency bands.

Performance optimization of liquid ring pumps based on Gappy POD surrogate model

To solve the problems of high calculation cost and difficult optimization caused by the complex gas–liquid two-phase flow in liquid ring pumps, an optimization method of a liquid ring pump impeller based on the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) surrogate model was proposed. The impeller blade shape was parameterized by using the quartic Bezier curve. The sample was obtained from the uniform experimental design of blade shape design parameters. The POD surrogate model was constructed by the parameters of sample blade shape and its corresponding flow field data, which was used instead of CFD numerical simulation to predict the flow field variables under the perturbations of blade design parameters in the optimization process. And then, the gradient vector of the objective function to design variables was predicted quickly and accurately. The blade shape was updated continuously along the negative direction of the gradient vector, and then, the optimal design of the impeller was acquired. The calculation case results show that the relative error between the pressure field in the impeller predicted by the POD method and that of CFD simulation is less than 5%, and the calculation cost is only 1/8460 of CFD simulation. Compared with the original model, the flow field distribution in the optimized model is significantly improved, and the efficiency is promoted by 3.8%.

Influence of different blade numbers on the performance of “saddle zone” in a mixed flow pump

In order to study the effect of different numbers of impeller blades on the performance of mixed-flow pump “saddle zone”, the external characteristic test and numerical simulation of mixed-flow pumps with three different impeller blade numbers were carried out. Based on high-precision numerical prediction, the internal flow field and tip leakage flow field of mixed flow pump under design conditions and stall conditions are investigated. By studying the vorticity transport in the stall flow field, the specific location of the high loss area inside the mixed flow pump impeller with different numbers of blades is located. The research results show that the increase in the number of impeller blades improve the pump head and efficiency under design conditions. Compared to the 4-blade impeller, the head and efficiency of the 5-blade impeller are increased by 5.4% and 21.9% respectively. However, the increase in the number of blades also leads to the widening of the “saddle area” of the mixed-flow pump, which leads to the early occurrence of stall and increases the instability of the mixed-flow pump. As the mixed-flow pump enters the stall condition, the inlet of the mixed-flow pump has a spiral swirl structure near the end wall for different blade numbers, but the depth and range of the swirling flow are different due to the change in the number of blades. At the same time, the change in the number of blades also makes the flow angle at 75% span change significantly, but the flow angle at 95% span is not much different because the tip leakage flow recirculates at the leading edge. Through the analysis of the vorticity transport results in the impeller with different numbers of blades, it is found that the reasons for the increase in the values of the vorticity transport in the stall condition are mainly impacted by the swirl flow at the impeller inlet, the tip leakage flow at the leading edge and the increased unsteady flow structures.

Regularities in aerodynamic efficiency control for gas cooler fans

Research relevance. The paper establishes the regularities in the impact the geometry and structural elements of a fan system piping have on the fan system’s aerodynamic efficiency in a wide range of the specific speed variation. Objectives and methods of research. A mathematical model has been obtained for the dependence of fan system’s geometry and kinematic parameters and the aerodynamic efficiency on the specific speed. Results. It has been proved that in order to reach higher aerodynamic efficiency of fan systems, in view of the increasing specific speed of fan systems, the aerodynamic quality of the impeller blade profiles should be increased and the aerodynamic resistance of the piping elements should be reduced. It has been shown that it is possible to create a gas cooler fan system with at least 400 specific speed and at least 0.85 efficiency if the impeller profiles aerodynamic quality is more than 25, and piping drag coefficient doesn’t exceed 0.2.

Analysis of the number and angle of the impeller blade to the performance of centrifugal pump

The paper discusses the performance of the pump in relation to the impeller. The impeller section is determined by the number and angle of the blades. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the role of the number and angle of impeller blades on the performance (discharge and discharge pressure) of centrifugal pumps based on experiments and simulations. The method used is experiment and simulation. Using a centrifugal pump type GWP 20/4 SW, Maximum Output: 6.5 HP/3500 rpm, Inlet/Outlet: 2 Inch, Dimensions: 475x375x370 mm. Experiments and simulations by varying the number of blades 2, 4, and 6 with a blade tilt angle of 130°, 150°, and 160°. For flow simulation using solid works program. The results show that pump performance is related to discharge pressure, impeller with 2-blades and an angle of 130° the pressure increases 0.45–2.45 bar, for 150° increases 0.14–2.96 bar, and 160° increases 0.29–3.07 bars. For a 4-blade impeller and an angle of 130°, the pressure increases by 0.48–3.12 bar, for 150° it increases by 0.39–3.39 bar, and for 160° it increases by 0.36–3.48 bar. While the impeller for 6-blades with an angle of 130° the pressure increases from 0.6 bar to 3.72 bar, for 150° increases from 1.36 to 4.34 bar, and 160° increases by 0.36–4.74 bar. While it related pump performance to flow rate, increasing the number of blades causes a decrease in flow rate. The highest flow rate is in a 2-blade impeller with a blade angle of 130° is 404.91 l/s. The lowest flow rate is on a 6-blade impeller with an angle of 160° is 279.66 l/s

Numerical Investigation of the Characteristics of Erosion in a Centrifugal Pump for Transporting Dilute Particle-Laden Flows

Erosion in centrifugal pumps for transporting flows with dilute particles is a main pump failure problem in many engineering processes. A numerical model combining the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and Discrete Element Method (DEM) is applied to simulate erosion in a centrifugal pump. Different models of the liquid-solid inter-phase forces are implemented, and the particle-turbulence interaction is also defined. The inertial particles considered in this work are monodisperse and have finite size. The numerical results are validated by comparing the results with a series of experimental data. Then, the effects of particle volume fraction, size, and shape on the pump erosion are estimated in the simulations. The results demonstrate that severe erosive areas are located near the inlet and outlet of the pressure side of the impeller blade, the middle region of the blade, the corners of the shroud and hub of the impeller adjoining to the pressure side of the blade, and the volute near the pump tongue. Among these locations, the maximum erosion occurs near the inlet of the pressure side of the blade. Erosion mitigation occurs under the situation where more particles accumulate in the near-wall region of the eroded surface, forming a buffering layer. The relationship between the particle size and the erosion is nonlinear, and the 1 mm particle causes the maximum pump erosion. The sharp particles cause more severe erosion in the pump because both the frequency of particle-wall collisions and the impact angle increase with the increasing sharpness of the particle.

Pressure Fluctuation Reduction of a Centrifugal Pump by Blade Trailing Edge Modification

The pressure fluctuation inside centrifugal pumps is one of the main causes of hydro-induced vibration, especially at the blade-passing frequency and its harmonics. This paper investigates the feature of blade-passing frequency excitation in a low-specific-speed centrifugal pump in the perspective of local Euler head distribution based on CFD analysis. Meanwhile, the relation between local Euler head distribution and pressure fluctuation amplitude is observed and used to explain the mechanism of intensive pressure fluctuation. The impeller blade with ordinary trailing edge profile, which is the prototype impeller in this study, usually induces wake shedding near the impeller outlet, making the energy distribution less uniform. Because of this, the method of reducing pressure fluctuation by means of improving Euler head distribution uniformity by modifying the impeller blade trailing edge profile is proposed. The impeller blade trailing edges are trimmed in different scales, which are marked as model A, B, and C. As a result of trailing edge trimming, the impeller outlet angles at the pressure side of the prototype of model A, B, and C are 21, 18, 15, and 12 degrees, respectively. The differences in Euler head distribution and pressure fluctuation between the model impellers at nominal flow rate are investigated and analyzed. Experimental verification is also conducted to validate the CFD results. The results show that the blade trailing edge profiling on the pressure side can help reduce pressure fluctuation. The uniformity of Euler head circumferential distribution, which is directly related to the intensity of pressure fluctuation, is improved because the impeller blade outlet angle on the pressure side decreases and thus the velocity components are adjusted when the blade trailing edge profile is modified. The results of the investigation demonstrate that blade trailing edge profiling can be used in the vibration reduction of low specific impellers and in the engineering design of centrifugal pumps.