Numerical and Experimental Investigation of High-efficiency Axial-flow Pump

The experimental investigation of axial-flow pump has been rapidly developed to meet the needs of South-to-North Water Diversion Project of China. Owing to the boundary conditions of hub, blade tip clearance, much of the physical phenomena and laws involved in this complex flow field can＇t be fully determined. The flow characteristics of the high efficiency axial-flow pump have been simulated by RNG k-e turbulence model and SIMPLEC arithmetic based on FLUENT software. Numerical results indicate that the data from the prediction show agreement with the experimental results, static pressure on pressure side of blades increases slightly at circumferential direction with radius increasing, and keep almost constant at the same radial while increasing gradually from inlet to exit on the suction side along flow direction at design conditions. The static pressure, total pressure and velocity at inlet, impeller outlet and vane outlet were measured by a five-hole probe, and a contrastive experiment was done to investigate the influence of hub leakage. The experimental results show that inlet flow is almost axial and the prerotation is very small at various conditions. The meridional velocity and circulation distribution are almost identical at impeller outlet at design conditions due to steady flow and high efficiency. The residual circulation exits at downstream of the guide vane, and the circumferential velocity component increases linearly from hub to tip at small flow rate conditions. Hub leakage in adjustable blades results in the decrease of the meridional velocity and circulation at blade exit near hub. The results of numerical simulation and experiments supply important flow structure information for the high-efficiency axial-flow pump.

Experimental study on inlet vortex in pump sump

In order to study the mechanism of the vortex generation at the bottom of the pump sump below the flare tube,twenty pressure pulsation monitoring points were arranged at the bottom of the pump sump below the flare tube,and the pressure fluctuation experiments were carried out under different flow conditions.The experimental results show that the frequency of pressure fluctuation at the bottom of the pump sump is twice of the rotational frequency of the impeller blade.The vortex below the flare tube is easy to generate under the large flow conditions and mainly concentrates at the right front position below the flare tube.The position of the vortex occurring is corresponding to the position of the low-pressure region below flare tube.

UNSTEADY FLOW ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF AXIAL-FLOW PUMP

The three-dimensional unsteady turbulent flow in axial-flow pumps was simulated based on Navier-Stoke solver embedded with k - ε RNG turbulence model and SIMPLEC algorithm. Numerical results show that the unsteady prediction results are more accurate than the steady results, and the maximal error of unsteady prediction is only 4.54%. The time-domain spectrums show that the static pressure fluctuation curves at the inlet and outlet of the rotor and the outlet of the stator are periodic, and all have four peaks and four valleys. The pressure fluctuation amplitude increases from the hub to the tip at the inlet and outlet of the rotor, but decreases at the outlet of the stator. The pressure fluctuation amplitude is the greatest at the inlet of the rotor, and the average amplitude decreases sharply from the inlet to the outlet. The frequency spectrums obtained by Fast Fourier Transform （FFT） show that the dominant frequency is approximately equal to the blade passing frequency. The static pressure on the pressure side of hydrofoil on different stream surfaces remains almost consistent, and increases gradually from the blade inlet to the exit on the suction side at different time steps. The axial velocity distribution is periodic and is affected by the stator blade number at the rotor exit. The experimental results show that the flow is almost axial and the pre-rotation is very small at the rotor inlet under the conditions of 0.8 QN -1.2 QN Due to the clearance leakage, the pressure, circulation and meridional velocity at the rotor outlet all decrease near the hub leakage and tip clearance regions.

NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF PERFORMANCE OF AN AXIAL-FLOW PUMP WITH INDUCER

The interaction of flow through the inducer and impeller of an axial-flow pump equipped with an inducer has significant effect on its performance. This article presents a recent numerical investigation on this topic. The studied pump has an inducer with 3 blades mounted on a conical hub and a 6-blade impeller. The blade angle of the impeller is adjustable to generate different relative circumferential angles between the inducer blade trailing edge and the impeller blade leading edge. A computational fluid dynamics code was used to investigate the flow characteristics and performance of the axial-flow pump. For turbulence closure, the RNG k-ε model was applied with an unstructured grid system. The rotor-stator interaction was treated with a Multiple Reference Frame （MRF） strategy. Computations were performed in different cases： 7 different relative circumferential angles （ Δθ ） between the inducer blade trailing edge and the impeller blade leading edge, and 3 different axial gaps （G） between the inducer and the impeller. The variation of the hydraulic loss in the rotator was obtained by changing Δθ . The numerical results show that the pressure generated is minimum in the case of （ G = 3%D）, which indicates that the interference between inducer and impeller is strong if the axial gap is small. The pump performances were predicted and compared to the experimental measurements. Recommendations for future modifications and improvements to the pump design were also given.

Numerical analysis of cavitation within slanted axial-flow pump

In this paper, the cavitating flow within a slanted axial-flow pump is numerically researched. The hydraulic and cavitation performance of the slanted axial-flow pump under different operation conditions are estimated. Compared with the experimental hydraulic performance curves, the numerical results show that the filter-based model is better than the standard k-ε model to predict the parameters of hydraulic performancE. In cavitation simulation, compared with the experimental results, the proposed numerical method has good predicting ability. Under different cavitation conditions, the internal cavitating flow fields within slanted axial-flow pump are investigated. Compared with flow visualization results, the major internal flow features can be effectively grasped. In order to explore the origin of the cavitation performance breakdown, the Boundary Vorticity Flux （BVF） is introduced to diagnose the cavitating flow fields. The analysis results indicate that the cavitation performance drop is relevant to the instability of cavitating flow on the blade suction surface.

DESIGN OF IMPLANTABLE AXIAL-FLOW BLOOD PUMP AND NUMERICAL STUDIES ON ITS PERFORMANCE

This article presents the design of a new implantable axial-flow blood pump. The special feature of the flow channel inside the blood pump is that the blood is driven by a big-small tandem impeller installed in the inner hole of the cylinder magnet of a brushless direct current motor. The inner hole makes the main flow channel possible, while the gap between the inner end of the stator and the outer end of the cylinder magnet gives the shape of the tributary flow channel. There is no motor magnet inside the main flow channel, therefore, more blood can pass through it. The gap of the tributary flow channel is very small, but the blood flow in it is not blocked. Thus, the efficiency is increased and the volume and weight of blood pump can be reduced greatly. The outer diameter, length and weight of the manufactured implantable axial-flow blood pump are 29.6 mm, 76 mm and 158 g, respectively. The impeller spins at the speed of 9000 rpm and can generate a pressure head of 100 mmHg and a flow rate of 8 L/rain. In an animal experiment, the blood pump has been successfully applied as a Ventricular Assist Device （VAD） in the chest of a small cow. Besides a mathematical model is established to simulate the flow inside an axial-flow blood pump of implantable VAD. The numerical studies on the performance of the implantable axial-flow blood pump are carried out by combining this mathematical model and the Fluent software. The numerical results agree well with those of experiments, with the maximum error less than 10%.

Influence of double-inlet design on the flow-head characteristics of axial-flow pump

The internal flow field of an axial-flow pump under low flow rate conditions is extremely turbulent. The unstable flow region is formed due to the tip leakage and the rotating stall, and is distinguished by a saddle patterned zone in its flow-head curve that demonstrates restrictions in its workable flow range. It is therefore important to understand and improve the operational characteristics of an axial-flow pump under low flow rate conditions. In this study, experiments are performed for the performances of an axial-flow pump at the flow rate in a range between 0.8Qd and 1.2Qd, with the internal flow field measured by the particle image velocimetry (PIV), and with the pump performances and the internal flow field simulated by the Ansys CFX. The simulation results agree well with the experimental results. From the predicted heads at the flow rate in the range between 0.1Qd and 0.7Qd by the numerical simulation, the complete flow-head curves are obtained. The streamlines and the velocity contours in the region in front of the impeller leading edge under different flow conditions are analyzed. By adopting the double-inlet structures, the flow-head characteristics are studied by varying the values of δ and σ respectively, where δ denotes the gap between the inner cylinder end and the impeller leading edge, and σ denotes the gap between the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder. The findings indicate that with the double-inlet design, the velocity distribution can be effectively improved in the region in front of the impeller leading edge, as well as the head performance under the low flow rate conditions, and the positive slope value of the head curve is reduced in the unstable flow range. The optimal δ and σ values are determined.

Identification and analysis of the inlet vortex of an axial-flow pump

Axial-flow pumps are widely employed in urban flood control and drainage pumping stations.The inlet vortex is one factor that seriously threaten the safe,stable and efficient operation of axial-flow pump units.In this paper,the vortex recognition performances of two vortex identification methods,the Q—criterion and Liutex methods,are compared based on an axial-flow pump,and the interactions between the impeller and vortex are explored.A flat plate vortex generator is installed in front of the impeller to continuously induce a stable vortex.The numerical simulation results show that the Liutex method can not only simultaneously identify strong and weak vortices but also reduce the influence of shear force at the sidewall.The vortex and the impeller influence each other.Under the influence of rotating blades,the vortex changes from a low frequency to the blade frequency,and the vortex significantly changes the tangential velocity inside the impeller.The accuracy of the numerical simulation results is verified by experiments on the external and internal characteristics.