The Flow Simulation and Experimental Study of Low-Specific-Speed High-Speed Complex Centrifugal Impellers＊

Based on the Navier-Stokes equations and the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model, three-dimensional turbulent flow in four low-specific-speed centrifugal impellers are simulated numerically and analyzed. The relative velocity distribution, pressure distribution and static pressure rise at the design point are obtained for the regular impeller with only long blades and three complex impellers with long, mid or short blades. It is found that the back flow region between long-blade pressure side and mid-blade suction side is diminished and is pushed to pressure side of short blades near the outlet of impeller at suction side by the introduction of mid, short blades, and the size of back flow becomes smaller in a multi-blade complex impeller. And the pressure rises uniformly from inlet to outlet in all the impellers. The simulated results show that the complex impeller with long, mid and short blades can improve the velocity distribution and reduce the back flow in the impeller channel. The experimental results show that the back flow in the impeller has an important influence on the performance of pump and a more-blade complex impeller with long, mid and short blades can effectively solve low flow rate instability of the low-specific-speed centrifugal pump.

Numerical Simulation of Flow in Centrifugal Pump with Complex Impeller

Based on the Navier-Stokes equations and the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model,three dimensional turbulent flow fields in centrifugal pump with long-mid-short blade complex impeller are calculated and analyzed numerically.The relative velocity and pressure distributions in the flowpart are obtained.It is found that the flow in the passage of the complex impeller is unsymmetrical due to the joint action between volute and impeller.The back-flow region is at inlet of long-blade suction side,near middle part of long-blade pressure side and outlet of short-blade suction side.The flow near volute throat is affected greatly by volute.The relative velocity is large and it is easy to bring back flow at outlet of the complex impeller near volute throat.The static and total pressure rise uniformly from inlet to outlet in the impeller.At impeller outlet,the pressure periodically decreases from pressure side to suction side,and then the static pressure sharply rise near the throat.The experimental results show that the back flow in the impeller has an important influence on the performance of pump.

Unsteady Flow Characteristic of Low-Specific-Speed Centrifugal Pump under Different Flow-Rate Conditions

To investigate the unsteady flow characteristics in centrifugal pump, the flow field in a low-specific-speed centri- fugal pump with complex impeller is numerically simulated under different conditions. The RNG r-e turbulence model and sliding mesh are adopted during the process of computation. The results show that the interaction be- tween impeller and volute results in the unstable flow of the fluid, which causes the uneven distribution of pres- sure fluctuations around the circumference of volute. Besides the main frequency and its multiple frequency of pressure fluctuations in the centrifugal pump, the frequency caused by the long blades of complex impeller also plays a dominant role in the low-frequency areas. Furthermore, there exists biggish fluctuation phenomenon near the tongue. The composition of static pressure fluctuations frequency on the volute wall and blade outlet is similar except that the fluctuation amplitude near the volute wall reduces. In general, the different flow rates mainly have influence on the amplitude of fluctuation frequency in the pump, while have little effect on the frequency compo- sition.