Effect of the Density of Molten Metal on the Raining Phenomenon in Horizontal Centrifugal Casting

In this work the influence of the density of the molten metal on the emergence of the raining phenomenon in the horizontal centrifugal casting process is numerically studied. Transient 2D numerical simulations were carried out using Computational Fluid Dynamics software. Three molten metals with different density, namely aluminum, iron and lead, and three angular frequencies, namely 50, 66 and 77 rad/s were considered. It is found that the density of the molten metal significantly affects the emergence, transient or permanent, of the rain phenomenon. However, the magnitude and duration of the rain phenomenon depend on the angular frequency of the rotating mold. Likewise, since gravitational forces affect the metal according to its density, the value of the critical rotation speed of the mold is also affected.

Microstructure and Hot Tearing Sensitivity Simulation and Parameters Optimization for the Centrifugal Casting of Al-Cu Alloy

Four typical theories on the formation of thermal tears:strength,liquid film,intergranular bridging,and solidifica-tion shrinkage compensation theories.From these theories,a number of criteria have been derived for predicting the formation of thermal cracks,such as the stress-based Niyama,Clyne,and RDG(Rapaz-Dreiser-Grimaud)criteria.In this paper,a mathematical model of horizontal centrifugal casting was established,and numerical simulation analysis was conducted for the centrifugal casting process of cylindrical Al-Cu alloy castings to investigate the effect of the centrifugal casting process conditions on the microstructure and hot tearing sensitivity of alloy castings by using the modified RDG hot tearing criterion.Results show that increasing the centrifugal rotation and pouring speeds can refine the microstructure of the alloy but increasing the pouring and mold preheating temperatures can lead to an increase in grain size.The grain size gradually transitions from fine grain on the outer layer to coarse grain on the inner layer.Meanwhile,combined with the modified RDG hot tearing criterion,the overall distribution of the castings’hot tearing sensitivity was analyzed.The analysis results indicate that the porosity in the middle region of the casting was large,and hot tearing defects were prone to occur.The hot tearing tendency on the inner side of the casting was greater than that on the outer side.The effects of centrifugal rotation speed,pouring temperature,and preheating temperature on the thermal sensitivity of Al-Cu alloy castings are summarized in this paper.This study revealed that the tendency of alloy hot cracking decreases with the increase of the centrifugal speed,and the maximum porosity of castings decreases first and then increases with the pouring temperature.As the preheating temperature increases,the overall maximum porosity of castings shows a decreasing trend.

Blade Wrap Angle Impact on Centrifugal Pump Performance:Entropy Generation and Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis

The centrifugal pump is a prevalent power equipment widely used in different engineering patterns,and the impeller blade wrap angle significantly impacts its performance.A numerical investigation was conducted to analyze the influence of the blade wrap angle on flow characteristics and energy distribution of a centrifugal pump evaluated as a low specific speed with a value of 69.This study investigates six impellermodels that possess varying blade wrap angles(95°,105°,115°,125°,135°,and 145°)that were created while maintaining the same volute and other geometrical characteristics.The investigation of energy loss was conducted to evaluate the values of total and entropy generation rates(TEG,EGR).The fluid-structure interaction was considered numerically using the software tools ANSYS Fluent and ANSYSWorkbench.The elastic structural dynamic equation was used to estimate the structural response,while the shear stress transport k–ωturbulence model was utilized for the fluid domain modeling.The findings suggest that the blade wrap angle has a significant influence on the efficiency of the pump.The impeller featuring a blade wrap angle of 145°exhibits higher efficiency,with a notable increase of 3.76%relative to the original model.Variations in the blade wrap angle impact the energy loss,shaft power,and pump head.The model with a 145°angle exhibited a maximum equivalent stress of 14.8MPa and a total deformation of 0.084 mm.The results provide valuable insights into the intricate flow mechanism of the centrifugal pump,particularly when considering various blade wrap angles.

Experimental Analysis of Radial Centrifugal Pump Shutdown

Centrifugal pumps are widely used in the metallurgy,coal,and building sectors.In order to study the hydraulic characteristics of a closed impeller centrifugal pump during its shutdown in the so-called power frequency and frequency conversion modes,experiments were carried to determine the characteristic evolution of parameters such as speed,inlet and outlet pressure,head,flow rate and shaft power.A quasi-steady-state method was also used to further investigate these transient behaviors.The results show that,compared to the power frequency input,the performance parameter curves for the frequency conversion input are less volatile and smoother.The characteristic time is longer and the response to shutdown is slower.The quasi-steady-state theoretical head-flow curves match the experimental head-flow curves more closely at low flow rates when the frequency conversion input is considered.Moreover,in this case,the similarity law predicts the hydraulic performance more accurately.

Effect of melt-to-solid volume ratio and preheating temperature on Mg/Al bimetals interface by centrifugal casting

Compound casting is an efficient method for bonding dissimilar metals,in which a dramatic reaction can occur between the melt and solid.The centrifugal casting process,a type of compound casting,was applied to cast Al/Mg dissimilar bimetals.Magnesium melt was poured at 700 °C,with melt-to-solid volume ratios(Vm/Vs) of 1.5 and 3,into a preheated hollow aluminum cylinder.The preheating temperatures of the solid part were 320,400,and 450 °C,and the constant rotational speed was 1,600 rpm.The cast parts were kept inside the casting machine until reaching the cooling temperature of 150 °C.The result showed that an increase in preheating temperature from 320 to 450 °C led to an enhanced reaction layer thickness.In addition,an increase in the Vm/Vs from 1.5 to 3 resulted in raising the interface thickness from 1.2 to 1.8 mm.Moreover,the interface was not continuously formed when a Vm/Vs of 3 was selected.In this case,the force of contraction overcame the resultant acting force on the interface.An interface formed at the volume ratio of 1.5 was examined using scanning electron microscopy(SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDS),and the results demonstrated the formation of Al_(3)Mg_(2),Al_(12)Mg_(17) and(δ+Al_(12)Mg_(17)) eutectic structures in the interface.

Discrete Optimization on Unsteady Pressure Fluctuation of a Centrifugal Pump Using ANN and Modified GA

Pressure fluctuation due to rotor-stator interaction in turbomachinery is unavoidable,inducing strong vibration in the equipment and shortening its lifecycle.The investigation of optimization methods for an industrial centrifugal pump was carried out to reduce the intensity of pressure fluctuation to extend the lifecycle of these devices.Considering the time-consuming transient simulation of unsteady pressure,a novel optimization strategy was proposed by discretizing design variables and genetic algorithm.Four highly related design parameters were chosen,and 40 transient sample cases were generated and simulated using an automatic program.70%of them were used for training the surrogate model,and the others were for verifying the accuracy of the surrogate model.Furthermore,a modified discrete genetic algorithm(MDGA)was proposed to reduce the optimization cost owing to transient numerical simulation.For the benchmark test,the proposed MDGA showed a great advantage over the original genetic algorithm regarding searching speed and effectively dealt with the discrete variables by dramatically increasing the convergence rate.After optimization,the performance and stability of the inline pump were improved.The efficiency increased by more than 2.2%,and the pressure fluctuation intensity decreased by more than 20%under design condition.This research proposed an optimization method for reducing discrete transient characteristics in centrifugal pumps.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation on High-Pressure Centrifugal Pumps:Ultimate Pressure Formulation,Fatigue Life Assessment and Topological Optimization of Discharge Section

A high percentage of failure in pump elements originates from fatigue.This study focuses on the discharge section behavior,made of ductile iron,under dynamic load.An experimental protocol is established to collect the strain under pressurization and depressurization tests at specific locations.These experimental results are used to formulate the ultimate pressure expression function of the strain and the lateral surface of the discharge section and to validate finite element modeling.Fe-Safe is then used to assess the fatigue life cycle using different types of fatigue criteria(Coffin-Manson,Morrow,Goodman,and Soderberg).When the pressure is under 3000 PSI,pumps have an unlimited service life of 107 cycles,regardless of the criterion.However,for a pressure of 3555 PSI,only the Morrow criterion denotes a significant decrease in fatigue life cycles,as it considers the average stress.The topological optimization is then applied to the most critical pump model(with the lowest fatigue life cycle)to increase its fatigue life.Using the solid isotropic material with a penalization approach,the Abaqus Topology OptimizationModule is employed.The goal is to reduce the strain energy density while keeping the volume within bounds.According to the findings,a 5%volume reduction causes the strain energy density to decrease from 1.06 to 0.66106 J/m^(3).According to Morrow,the fatigue life cycle at 3,555 PSI is 782,425 longer than the initial 309,742 cycles.

Performance Prediction of an Optimized Centrifugal Pump with High Efficiency

The main structural parameters of the IR100-80-100A type chemical centrifugal pump have been optimized by means of an orthogonal test approach.The centrifugal pump has been modeled using the CFturbo software,and 16 sets of orthogonal-test schemes have been defined on the basis of 4 parameters,namely,the blade number,blade outlet angle,impeller outlet diameter,and impeller outlet width.Such analysis has been used to determine the influence of each index parameter on the pump working efficiency and identify a set of optimal combinations of such parameters.The internalflowfield in the centrifugal pump has been simulated by using the PumLinx software.These numerical results have shown that,compared with the prototype pump,the outlet pressure and shaft power of the optimized pump can be significantly reduced,and the pump working efficiency can be improved by 5.59%.In the present study,some arguments are also provided to demonstrate that,with respect to other optimization methods,the orthogonal test approach is more convenient,and requires less test times.

Optimal Structural Parameters for a Plastic Centrifugal Pump Inducer

The aim of the study is to determine the optimal structural parameters for a plastic centrifugal pump inducer within the framework of an orthogonal experimental method.For this purpose,a numerical study of the related flow field is performed using CFX.The shaft power and the head of the pump are taken as the evaluation indicators.Accordingly,the examined variables are the thickness(S),the blade cascade degree(t),the blade rim angle(β1),the blade hub angle(β2)and the hub length(L).The impact of each structural parameter on each evaluation index is examined and special attention is paid to the following combinations:S2 mm,t 2,β1235°,β2360°and L 140 mm(corresponding to a maximum head of 98.15 m);S 5 mm,t 1.6,β1252°,β2350°and L 140 mm(corresponding to a minimum shaft power of 63.06 KW).Moreover,using least squares and fish swarm algorithms,the pump shaft power and head are further optimized,yielding the following optimal combination:S 5 mm,t 1.9,β1252°,β2360°and L 145 mm(corresponding to the maximum head of 91.90 m,and a minimum shaft power of 64.83 KW).

Review:Measurement-Based Monitoring and Fault Identification in Centrifugal Pumps

Condition based maintenance(CBM) is one of the solutions to machinery maintenance requirements. Latest approaches to CBM aim at reducing human engagement in the real-time fault detection and decision making. Machine learning techniques like fuzzy-logic-based systems, neural networks, and support vector machines help to reduce human involvement. Most of these techniques provide fault information with 100% confidence. It is undeniably apparent that this area has a vast application scope. To facilitate future exploration, this review is presented describing the centrifugal pump faults, the signals they generate, their CBM based diagnostic schemes, and case studies for blockage and cavitation fault detection in centrifugal pump(CP) by performing the experiment on test rig. The classification accuracy is above 98% for fault detection. This review gives a head-start to new researchers in this field and identifies the un-touched areas pertaining to CP fault diagnosis.

Effects of temperature on fracture behavior of Al-based in-situ composites reinforced with Mg_2Si and Si particles fabricated by centrifugal casting

An aluminum-based in-situ composites reinforced with Mg2Si and Si particles were produced by centrifugal casting A1-20Si-5Mg alloy. The microstructure of the composites was examined, and the effects of temperature on fracture behavior of the composite were investigated. The results show that the average fraction of primary Si and Mg2Si particles in the composites is as high as 38%, and ultimate tensile strengths （UTS） of the composites first increase then decrease with the increase of test temperature. Microstructures of broken specimens show that both the particle fracture and the interface debonding affect the fracture behavior of the composites, and the interface debonding becomes the dominant fracture mechanism with increasing test temperature. Comparative results indicate that rich particles in the composites and excellent interface strength play great roles in enhancing tensile property by preventing the movement of dislocations.

Flow equation and similarity criterion during centrifugal casting in micro-channel

Liquid metal filling flow process in the microscale during the centrifugal casting process was studied by means of similar physical simulation. The research was focused on derived similarity criterion. Based on the traditional flow equations, the flow equation and the Bernoulli＇s equation for liquid metal flows in micro-scale space were derived, which provides a mathematical model for numerical simulation of micro-scale flow. In the meanwhile, according to the micro-flow equation and the similarity theory, the similarity criterion for the physical simulation of the mold filling behaviors was presented under centrifugal force field, so as to achieve the visual observation and quantitative analysis of micro-flow process.

CENTRIFUGAL TEST STUDY ON THE BEHAVIOR OF SOFT CLAY AT SEA BOTTOM UNDER THE ACTION OF WAVE FORCE

The importance of studying the behavior of the soil at the sea bottom under the action of wave force has arisen with the development of offshore engineering.In this paper,the behavior of the soft clay under the action of wave forces is studied by performing centrifugal tests.The soil profile and the wave characters were simulated in the centrifugal model cell according to the typical environmental conditions of the oil fields in the Bohai gulf.Test results show that the soft clay layer will be seriously softened near the upper surface under the maximum wave height and slightly affected in the deeper layer,and that no liquefaction was recorded in the silty sand sublayer during the test.It is proven that the centrifugal test is a valid technique for simulating the interaction between soil and wave.

Similar physical simulation of microflow in micro-channel by centrifugal casting process

By means of similar physical simulation, liquid metal filling flow pattern in the microscale during the centrifugal casting process was studied. It was found that, in microscale, the flow channel with the maximum cross-sectional area was filled first, and the micro flow channels with 0.1 mm in diameter were filled when the rotational speed was increased to 964 r/min. The total fluid energy remained constant during the mould filling, and the changes of cross-sectional area only occurred in the microflow channels with 0.3 mm in diameter. Filling velocity increased with processing time, and a peak value was achieved rapidly, followed by a gentle increase as the process proceeded further. The time required to achieve the peak filling rate decreased dramatically with increase of rotational speed.

EFFECT OF TIP CLEARANCE ON PERFORMANCE AND FLOW FIELD OF SMALL SIZED HIGH SPEED CENTRIFUGAL FAN

A centrifugal fan with the high speed and compact dimensions is studied numerically and experimentally. The centrifugal fan consists of a shrouded impeller rotating at 34 000 r/min with a small tip clearance 0.7 mm to the fixed outer casing. Computational models with/without the tip clearance are built and the κ-ω shear stress transport （SST） turbulence model and the unstructured mesh are applied to the numerical simulation for unsteady solutions. The overall performance is measured on a standard experimental bench and the major flow feature of each component inside the centrifugal fan is numerically investigated. In the presence of the tip clearance due to the difference of static pressure between leading and trailing edges of the clearance, i. e. , leading and trailing edges of the impeller, a strong return flow exists inside the clearance passage and re-circulates the main stream inside the impeller passage, and produces the strong flow interaction, thus changing the flow field and influencing the overall performance.

Numerical Simulation and Analysis of Solid-liquid Two-phase Flow in Centrifugal Pump

The flow with solid-liquid two-phase media inside centrifugal pumps is very complicated and the relevant method for the hydraulic design is still immature so far. There exist two main problems in the operation of the two-phase flow pumps, i.e., low overall efficiency and severe abrasion. In this study, the three-dimensional, steady, incompressible, and turbulent solid-liquid two-phase flows in a low-specific-speed centrifugal pump are numerically simulated and analyzed by using a computational fluid dynamics （CFD） code based on the mixture model of the two-phase flow and the RNG k-~ two-equation turbulence model, in which the influences of rotation and curvature are fully taken into account. The coupling between impeller and volute is implemented by means of the frozen rotor method. The simulation results predicted indicate that the solid phase properties in two-phase flow, especially the concentration, the particle diameter and the density, have strong effects on the hydraulic performance of the pump. Both the pump head and the efficiency are reduced with increasing particle diameter or concentration. However, the effect of particle density on the performance is relatively minor. An obvious jet-wake flow structure is presented near the volute tongue and becomes more remarkable with increasing solid phase concentration. The suction side of the blade is subject to much more severe abrasion than the pressure side. The obtained results preliminarily reveal the characteristics of solid-liquid two-phase flow in the centrifugal pump, and are helpful for improvement and empirical correction in the hydraulic design of centrifugal pumps.

Unsteady Turbulent Simulation and Pressure Fluctuation Analysis for Centrifugal Pumps

The pressure fluctuation in the flow passage of both impeller and casing is addressed on design condition. The initial conditions for the unsteady turbulent simulation are resulted from the steady calculations, and the three dimensional unsteady turbulent simulation concerning the rotor-stator interaction is executed by a Navier-Stoke solver embedded with k -ε turbulence model and with appropriate moving interface boundary conditions. Detecting points are distributed in the flow passage in different radial and circumferential positions to capture the static pressure fluctuation character for one cycle of the impeller. The time-domain spectrums show that the static pressure curves are periodic and have five peaks and five valleys. With the radius increasing, the pressure fluctuation peak-to-peak values in the impeller are increasing, and reach the maximum value on the interface. In the casing flow passage, those values are about 7% of local static pressure except some ones near the tongue. The values become decreasingly in the diffuser pipe. The frequency spectrums transformed by fast Fourier transform （FFT） show that the dominant frequency is approximate with the blade passing frequency, and the pressure fluctuations in impeller passage have high frequency content while those in casing ones have no such information.

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.

Effects of Blade Number on Characteristics of Centrifugal Pumps

The blade number of impeller is an important design parameter of pumps, which affects the characteristics of pump heavily. At present, the investigation focuses mostly on the performance characteristics of axis flow pumps, the influence of blade number on inner flow filed and characteristics of centrifugal pump has not been understood completely. Therefore, the methods of numerical simulation and experimental verification are used to investigate the effects of blade number on flow field and characteristics of a centrifugal pump. The model pump has a design specific speed of 92.7 and an impeller with 5 blades. The blade number is varied to 4, 6, 7 with the casing and other geometric parameters keep constant. The inner flow fields and characteristics of the centrifugal pumps with different blade number are simulated and predicted in non-cavitation and cavitation conditions by using commercial code FLUENT. The impellers with different blade number are made by using rapid prototyping, and their characteristics are tested in an open loop. The comparison between prediction values and experimental results indicates that the prediction results are satisfied. The maximum discrepancy of prediction results for head, efficiency and required net positive suction head are 4.83%, 3.9% and 0.36 m, respectively. The flow analysis displays that blade number change has an important effect on the area of low pressure region behind the blade inlet and jet-wake structure in impellers. With the increase of blade number, the head of the model pumps increases too, the variable regulation of efficiency and cavitation characteristics are complicated, but there are optimum values of blade number for each one. The research results are helpful for hydraulic design of centrifugal pump.

Numerical Prediction and Performance Experiment in a Deep-well Centrifugal Pump with Different Impeller Outlet Width

The existing research of the deep-well centrifugal pump mainly focuses on reduce the manufacturing cost and improve the pump performance, and how to combine above two aspects together is the most difficult and important topic. In this study, the performances of the deep-well centrifugal pump with four different impeller outlet widths are studied by the numerical, theoretical and experimental methods in this paper. Two stages deep-well centrifugal pump equipped with different impellers are simulated employing the commercial CFD software to solve the Navier-Stokes equations for three-dimensional incompressible steady flow. The sensitivity analyses of the grid size and turbulence model have been performed to improve numerical accuracy. The flow field distributions are acquired and compared under the design operating conditions, including the static pressure, turbulence kinetic energy and velocity. The prototype is manufactured and tested to certify the numerical predicted performance. The numerical results of pump performance are higher than the test results, but their change trends have an acceptable agreement with each other. The performance results indicted that the oversize impeller outlet width leads to poor pump performances and increasing shaft power. Changing the performance of deep-well centrifugal pump by alter impeller outlet width is practicable and convenient, which is worth popularizing in the engineering application. The proposed research enhances the theoretical basis of pump design to improve the performance and reduce the manufacturing cost of deep-well centrifugal pump.