3D Particle Image Velocimetry Test of Inner Flow in a Double Blade Pump Impeller

The double blade pump is widely used in sewage treatment industry,however,the research on the internal flow characteristics of the double blade pump with particle image velocimetry（PIV） technology is very little at present.To reveal inner flow characteristics in double blade pump impeller under off-design and design conditions,inner flows in a double blade pump impeller,whose specific speed is 111,are measured under the five off-design conditions and design condition by using 3D PIV test technology.In order to ensure the accuracy of the 3D PIV test,the external trigger synchronization system which makes use of fiber optic and equivalent calibration method are applied.The 3D PIV relative velocity synthesis procedure is compiled by using Visual C＋＋ 2005.Then absolute velocity distribution and relative velocity distribution in the double blade pump impeller are obtained.Test results show that vortex exists in each condition,but the location,size and velocity of vortex core are different.Average absolute velocity value of impeller outlet increases at first,then decreases,and then increases again with increase of flow rate.Again average relative velocity values under 0.4,0.8,and 1.2 design condition are higher than that under 1.0 design condition,while under 0.6 and 1.4 design condition it is lower.Under low flow rate conditions,radial vectors of absolute velocities at impeller outlet and blade inlet near the pump shaft decrease with increase of flow rate,while that of relative velocities at the suction side near the pump shaft decreases.Radial vectors of absolute velocities and relative velocities change slightly under the two large flow rate conditions.The research results can be applied to instruct the hydraulic optimization design of double blade pumps.

RESEARCH OF INNER FLOW IN A DOUBLE BLADES PUMP BASED ON OPENFOAM

The inner flow analysis of centrifugal pumps has gradually become an important issue for the hydraulic design and performance improvement.Nowadays,CFD simulation toolbox of pump inner flow mainly contains commercial tools and open source tools.There are some defects for commercial CFD software for the numerical simulation of 3-D turbulent internal flow in pump,especially in capturing the flow characteristics under the off-design operating conditions.Additionally,it is difficult for researchers to do further investigation because of the undeclared source.Therefore,an open source software like Open Field Operation and Manipulation （OpenFOAM） is increasingly popular with researchers from all over the world.In this paper,a new computational study was implemented based on the original solver and was used to directly simulate the steady-state inner flow in a double blades pump,with the specific speed is 111.In order to disclose the characteristics deeply,three research schemes were conducted.The ratios （） of the flow rate are 0.8,1.0 and 1.2,respectively.The simulation results were verified with the Particle Imaging Velocimetry （PIV） experimental results,and the numerical calculation results agree well with the experimental data.Meanwhile,the phenomena of flow separation under the off-design operating conditions are well captured by OpenFOAM.The results indicate that OpenFOAM possesses obvious strong predominance in computing the internal flow field of pump.The analysis results can also be used as the basis for the further research and the improvement of centrifugal pump.