Experimental Study of the Pressure Fluctuations in a Pump Turbine at Large Partial Flow Conditions

Frequent shifts of output and operating mode require a pump turbine with excellent stability. Current researches show that large partial flow conditions in pump mode experience positive-slope phenomena with a large head drop. The pressure fluctuation at the positive slope is crucial to the pump turbine unit safety. The operating instabilities at large partial flow conditions for a pump turbine are analyzed. The hydraulic performance of a model pump turbine is tested with the pressure fluctuations measured at unstable operating points near a positive slope in the performance curve. The hydraulic performance tests show that there are two separated positive-slope regions for the pump turbine, with the flow discharge for the first positive slope from 0.85 to 0.91 times that at the maximum efficiency point. The amplitudes of the pressure fluctuations at these unstable large partial flow conditions near the first positive slope are much larger than those at stable operating condtions. A dominant frequency is measured at 0.2 times the impeller rotational frequency in the flow passage near the impeller exit, which is believed to be induced by the rotating stall in the flow passage of the wicket gates. The test results also show hysteresis with pressure fluctuations when the pump turbine is operated near the first positive slope. The hysteresis creates different pressure fluctuations for those operation points even though their flow rates and heads are similar respectively. The pressure fluctuation characteristics at large partial flow conditions obtained by the present study will be helpful for the safe operation of pumped storage units.

Numerical Simulation of Pressure Fluctuations in a Large Francis Turbine Runner

The pressure fluctuation caused by unsteady flow in runner is one of the main reasons of vibration for a large Francis hydraulic turbine. It directly affects the steady operation of the hydraulic turbine unit. The existing research of the pressure fluctuation in hydraulic turbine mainly focuses on the unsteady flow in draft tube. Accurate distribution of pressure fluctuations inside a runner is not very clear. In this paper, the numerical method for predicting the pressure fluctuations in runner is investigated and the numerical simulation is performed for a large Francis hydraulic turbine. It is proved that the combination of shear-stress transport（SST） k-o） turbulence model and pressure-implicit with splitting of operators（PISO） algorithm could give more reliable prediction of pressure fluctuations in runner. The frequencies of pressure fluctuations in runner are affected by the flow in guide vane and the flow in draft tube The first dominant frequency is significantly determined by the flow in draft tube, especially at part load condition. This frequency is approximately equal to one-third of the runner rotating frequency. The evident second dominant frequency is exactly equal to the guide vane passing frequency. The peak-to-peak amplitudes of pressure fluctuations in runner at small guide vane open angle are larger than that at large open angle at the same operating head. The amplitudes at points on blade pressure surface are generally greater than that on suction surface. The research results could be used to direct the hydraulic design and operation stability improvement of a large Francis hydraulic turbine.

Calculation grid and turbulence model for numerical simulating pressure fluctuations in high-speed train tunnel

Calculation grid and turbulence model for numerical simulating pressure fluctuations in a high-speed train tunnel are studied through the comparison analysis of numerical simulation and moving model test.Compared the waveforms and peak-peak values of pressure fluctuations between numerical simulation and moving model test,the structured grid and the SST k-ωturbulence model are selected for numerical simulating the process of high-speed train passing through the tunnel.The largest value of pressure wave amplitudes of numerical simulation and moving model test meet each other.And the locations of the largest value of the initial compression and expansion wave amplitude of numerical simulation are in agreement with that of moving model test.The calculated pressure at the measurement point fully conforms to the propagation law of compression and expansion waves in the tunnel.

Statistical analysis of pressure fluctuations during unsteady flow for low-specific-speed centrifugal pumps

A three-dimensional transient numerical simulation was conducted to study the pressure fluctuations in low-specific-speed centrifugal pumps. The characteristics of the inner flow were investigated using the SST k-ω turbulence model. The distributions of pressure fluctuations in the impeller and the volute were recorded, and the pressure fluctuation intensity was analyzed comprehensively, at the design condition, using statistical methods. The results show that the pressure fluctuation intensity increases along the impeller streamline from the leading edge to the trailing edge. In the impeller passage, the intensity near the shroud is much higher than that near the hub at thc inlet. However, the intensity at the middle passage is almost equal to the intensity at the outlet. The pressure fluctuation intensity is the highest at the trailing edge on the pressure side and near the tongue because of the rotor-stator interaction. The distribution of pressure fluctuation intensity is symmetrical in the axial cross sections of the volute channel. However, this intensity decreases with increasing radial distance. Hence, the pressure fluctuation intensity can be reduced by modifying the geometry of the leading edge in the impeller and the tongue in the volute.

Influence of the Axial Position of the Guide Vane on the Fluctuations of Pressure in a Nuclear Pump

The influence of the axial mount position of the guide vane on the pressure fluctuation in a nuclear pump(AP1000)is investigated.The characteristics of the three-dimensional flow inside the nuclear pump are analyzed by means of numerical simulation.Results indicate that when the axial relative distance between the guide vane and the pumping chamber is reduced,in conditions of“small flow,”the efficiency of the pump increases,the pressure inside the pumping chamber decreases,while the losses related to the guide vane grow.Under large flow conditions,as the efficiency of the pump decreases,the losses for the guide vane and the pumping chamber increase.The pressure fluctuation in the annular pumping chamber is basically determined by the rotation frequency and the blade passing frequency.The magnitude of these fluctuations is affected by the guide vane axial position.In particular,the smallest possible amplitude is obtained when the outlet central plane of the guide vane coincides with the outlet axis of the pumping chamber.

Analysis and evaluation on pressure fluctuations in air dense medium fluidized bed

Pressure fluctuations contribute to the instability of separation process in air dense medium fluidized bed, which provides a high motivation for further study of underlying mechanisms. Reasons for generation and propagation of pressure fluctuations in the air dense medium fluidized bed have been discussed.Drift rate and collision rate of particles were employed to deduce the correlation between voidage and pressure fluctuations. Simultaneously, a dynamic pressure fluctuation measuring and analysis system was established. Based on frequency domain analysis and wavelet analysis, collected signals were disassembled and analyzed. Results show gradually intensive motion of particles increases magnitudes of signal components with lower frequencies. As a result of violent particle motion, the magnitude of real pressure signal's frequency experienced an increase as air velocity increased moderately. Wavelet analysis keeps edge features of the real signal and eliminates the noise efficaciously. The frequency of denoised signal is closed to that of pressure signal identified in frequency domain analysis.

Time-series analysis of the characteristic pressure fluctuations in a conical fluidized bed with negative pressure

The negative pressure conical fluidized bed is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry.In this study,experiments based on the negative pressure conical fluidized bed are carried out by changing the material mass and particle size.The pressure fluctuation signals are analyzed by the time and the frequency domain methods.A method for absolutely characterizing the degree of the energy concentration at the main frequency is proposed,where the calculation is to divide the original power spectrum by the average signal power.A phenomenon where the gas velocity curve temporarily stops growing is observed when the material mass is light,and the particle size is small.The standard deviation and kurtosis both rapidly change at the minimum fluidization velocity and thus can be used to determine the flow regime,and the variation rule of the kurtosis is independent of both the material mass and particle size.In the initial fluidization stage,the dominant pressure signal comes from the material movement;with the increase in the gas velocity,the power of a 2.5 Hz signal continues to increase.A method of dividing the main frequency by the average cycle frequency can conveniently determine the fluidized state,and a novel concept called stable fluidized zone proposed in this paper can be obtained.Controlling the gas velocity within the stable fluidized zone ensures that the fluidized bed consistently remains in a stable fluidized state.

Pore pressure fluctuations of overlying aquifer during residual coal mining and water-soil stress coupling analysis

Three test models and a simulation model were constructed based on the prevailing conditions of the Taiping coalmine in order to analyze pore pressure fluctuations of an overlying aquifer during residual coal mining. As well, the relation between pore pressure and soil stress was evaluated. The model tests show the vibrations of pore pressure and soil stress as a result of mining activities. The simulation model tells of the response characteristics of pore pressure after mining and its distribution in the sand aquifer. The comparative analysis reveals that pore pressure and soil stress vibration are activated by unexpected events occurring in mines, such as collapsing roofs. An increased pore pressure zone always lies above the wall in front or behind the working face of a mine. Both pore pressure and vertical stress result in increasing and decreasing processes during movements of the working face of a mine. The vibration of pore pressure always precedes soil stress in the same area and ends with a sharp decline. Changes in pore pressure of sand aquifer are limited to the area of stress changes. Obvious changes are largely located in a very small frame over the mining face.

Impact of intraocular pressure fluctuations on progression of normal tension glaucoma

AIM:To investigate short-and long-term intraocular pressure(IOP)fluctuations and fur ther ocular and demographic parameters as predictors for normal tension glaucoma(NTG)progression.METHODS:This retrospective,longitudinal cohort study included 137 eyes of 75 patients with NTG,defined by glaucomatous optic disc or visual field defect with normal IOP(<21 mm Hg),independently from therapy regimen.IOP fluctuation,mean,and maximum were inspected with a mean follow-up of 38 mo[standard deviation(SD)18 mo].Inclusion criteria were the performance of minimum two 48-hour profiles including perimetry,Heidelberg retina tomograph(HRT)imaging,and optic disc photographs.The impact of IOP parameters,myopia,sex,cup-to-disc-ratio,and visual field results on progression of NTG were analyzed using Cox regression models.A sub-group analysis with results from optical coherence tomography(OCT)was performed.RESULTS:IOP fluctuations,average,and maximum were not risk factors for progression in NTG patients,although maximum IOP at the initial IOP profile was higher in eyes with progression than in eyes without progression(P=0.054).The 46/137(33.5%)eyes progressed over the followup period.Overall progression(at least three progression confirmations)occurred in 28/137 eyes(20.4%).Most progressions were detected by perimetry(36/46).Longterm IOP mean over all pressure profiles was 12.8 mm Hg(SD 1.3 mm Hg);IOP fluctuation was 1.4 mm Hg(SD 0.8 mm Hg).The progression-free five-year rate was 58.2%(SD 6.5%).CONCLUSION:Short-and long-term IOP fluctuations do not result in progression of NTG.As functional changes are most likely to happen,NTG should be monitored with visual field testing more often than with other devices.

Relationship between the Periodic Fluctuations of Pressure and Precipitation during a Rainstorm

The relationship between periodic fluctuations of pressure and precipitation was investigated using the continuous wavelet transform and wavelet coherence transform methods for a rainstorm case that occurred during 19–25 June 2005 in Guangdong Province, China. The results show that a period of 2–4 h existed in both pressure and precipitation fluctuations. Furthermore, this high frequency pressure fluctuation was closely related to the fluctuation of precipitation with a similar period, and the fluctuation of pressure was about two hours ahead of the precipitation fluctuation variation. Since the high frequency pressure fluctuation implies the existence of gravity wave activity, the results suggest that gravity wave activities with a 2–4 h period in the atmosphere exerted an important influence on precipitation during this rainstorm.

Postoperative Delirium in Elderly Patients May be Associated with Perioperative Blood Pressure Fluctuations

Postoperative delirium(PD)is a common complication of surgery in elderly patients,but its pathophysiological mechanism remains unclear.In order to clarify the role of intraoperative hypotension and fluctuation of blood pressure in the development of PD,we conducted a follow-up study in elderly patients with intraoperative hypotension and fluctuation of blood pressure.A total of 237 patients underwent hip surgery between July 2018 and September 2019,and 158 patients who were eligible for inclusion were enrolled in the study.One day before the operation,the mentality of patients was evaluated by Mini-mental State Examina­tion(MMSE),and the sex,age,height,and weight of the patients were recorded.Radial artery puncture was performed in all patients before anesthesia,intraoperative SBP,MAP and DBP were recorded,and the surgical events of the patients was recorded.The markers associated with PD(TNF-α,IL-6 and S-100β)were determined before and after surgery.Perioperative delirium(PD)was assessed by the prevailing standard of assessment,Confusion of Consciousness Assessment(CAM).Cognitive assessment was evaluated using the Mini-mental State Examination(MMSE).In addition,the timing and type of delirium were recorded.There were 158 patients which were accorded with the inclusion criteria came into the study.The results of our data showed that delirium occurred in 41 patients(25.9%)during the first week after surgery.In the compar­ison between the PD group and the non-PD group,it was found that the patients with postoperative delirium were older,lower body mass index and higher MMSE score before operation.Intraoperative blood pressure is low,usually more than 30%lower than preoperative blood pressure.The levels of TNF-α,IL-6 and Smur100βwere higher after operation.The increased incidence of postoperative delirium may be related to in­traoperative hypotension and intraoperative blood pressure fluctuation.The pathophysiological mechanism may be that hypotension causes low cerebral perfusion,which in turn causes local inflammation in the brain.In addition,postoperative delirium is also more likely to occur in older patients with lower body mass index.

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.

Flow Pattern and Pressure Fluctuation of Severe Slugging in Pipeline-riser System

During the exploitation of offshore oil and gas,it is easy to form severe slugging which can cause great harm in the riser connecting wellheads and offshore platform preprocessing system.The flow pattern and pressure fluctuation of severe slugging were studied in an experimental simulation system with inner diameter of 0.051 m.It is found that severe slugging can be divided into three severe slugging regimes：regime I at low gas and liquid flow rates with large pressure fluctuation,intermittent flow of liquid and gas in the riser,and apparent cutoff of liquid phase,regime II at high gas flow rate with non-periodic fluctuation and discontinuous liquid outflow and no gas cutoff,regime III at high liquid flow rate with degenerative pressure fluctuation in form of relatively stable bubbly or plug flow.The results indicate that severe slugging still occurs when the declination angle of pipeline is 0,and there are mainly two kinds of regimes：regime I and regime II.As the angle increases,the formation ranges of regime I and regime III increase slightly while that of regime II is not affected.With the increase of gas superficial velocity and liquid superficial velocity,the pressure fluctuation at the bottom of riser increases initially and then decreases.The maximum value of pressure fluctuation occurs at the transition boundary of regimes I and II.

Pressure Fluctuation in the Submerged Circulative Impinging Stream Reactor

Pressure fluctuation in the submerged circulative impinging stream reactor （SCISR） is studied by measuring the dynamic pressure with micro pressure sensors of high accuracy, with water as the process material. Experimental results show that the maximum amplitude of fluctuation can be up to about 1.6kPa. On the power spectra the fluctuation is relatively concentrated in the range of 〈1000Hz, with some weak peeks in acoustic wave range. The space profile of intensive fluctuation region in the reactor is determined. The region is found to take the form of a couple truncated cones of empty core, with coincided bottoms, and is symmetrical with respect to the impinging plane and approximately symmetrical about the axis, essentially independent of u0. The integral intensity of fluctuation increases as the impinging velocity, Uo increasing.

Pressure fluctuation and its influencing factors in circulating water pump

In order to investigate the effect of sampling frequency and time on pressure fluctuations, the three-dimensional unsteady numerical simulations were conducted in a circulating water pump. Through comparison of turbulence models with hydraulic performance experiment, SST k-co model was confirmed to study the rational determination of sampling frequency and time better. The Fast Fourier Transform （FFT） technology was then adopted to process those fluctuating pressure signals obtained. On these bases, the characteristics of pressure fluctuations acting on the tongue were discussed. It is found that aliasing errors decrease at higher sampling frequency of 17 640 Hz, but not at a lower sampling frequency of 1 764 Hz. Correspondingly, an output frequency range ten-times wider is obtained at 17 640 Hz. Compared with 8R, when the sampling time is shorter, the amplitudes may be overvalued, and the frequencies and amplitudes of low-frequency fluctuations can not be well predicted. The frequencies at the tongue are in good agreement with the values calculated by formula and the frequency compositions less than the blade passing frequency are accurately predicted.

Impact of Impeller Stagger Angles on Pressure Fluctuation for a Double-Suction Centrifugal Pump

Pressure fluctuation may cause high amplitude of vibration of double-suction centrifugal pumps, but the impact of impeller stagger angles is still not well understood. In this paper, pressure fluctuation experiments are carried out for five impeller configurations with different stagger angles by using the same test rig system. Results show that the stagger angles exert negligible effects on the characteristics of head and efficiency. The distributions of pressure fluctuations are relatively uniform along the suction chamber wall, and the maximum pressure fluctuation amplitude is reached near the suction inlet tongue region. The pressure fluctuation characteristics are affected largely by impeller rotation, whose dominant frequencies include impeller rotation frequency and its harmonic frequencies, and half blade passage frequency. The stagger angle exerts a small effect on the pressure fluctuations in the suction chamber while a great effect on the pressure fluctuation in volute casing, especially on the aspect of decreasing the amplitude on blade passage frequency. Among the tested cases, the distribution of pressure fluctuations in the volute becomes more uniform than the other impeller configurations and the level of pressure fluctuation may be reduced by up to 50% when the impeller stagger angle is close to 24° or 360°.The impeller structure pattern needs to be taken into consideration during the design period, and the halfway staggered impeller is strongly recommended.

Wavelet analysis of pressure fluctuation signals in a gas-solid fluidized bed

It has been shown that much dynamic information is hidden in the pressure fluctuation signals of a gas-solid fluidized bed. Unfortunately, due to the random and capricious nature of this signal, it is hard to realize reliable analysis using traditional signal processing methods such as statistical analysis or spectral analysis, which is done in Fourier domain. Information in different frequency band can be extracted by using wavelet analysis. On the evidence of the composition of the pressure fluctuation signals, energy of low frequency (ELF) is proposed to show the transition of fluidized regimes from bubbling fluidization to turbulent fluidization. Plots are presented to describe the fluidized bed's evolution to help identify the state of different flow regimes and provide a characteristic curve to identify the fluidized status effectively and reliably.

Study on the nature of pressure signals in a bubbling fluidized bed

In this study on the nature of pressure signals generated by a deterministic or stochastic process in a bubbling fluidized bed, pressure fluctuation measurements were carried out in a 300-mm-diamet column at 0.090 m and 0.40 m above the distributor for different gas velocities. The method of detecting deterministic dynamic underlying pressure signals is proposed on the basis of predictability of pressure fluctuations. The deterministic nature of dynamics in fluidizing system was verified. The deterministic level of dynamics in fluidizing system was analyzed for different locations of pressure measurements and different gas velocities.

Investigation on Reduction of Pressure Fluctuation for a Double-Suction Centrifugal Pump

Double-suction centrifugal pumps have been applied extensively in many areas,and the significance of pressure fluctuations inside these pumps with large power is becoming increasingly important.In this study,a double-suction centrifugal pump with a high-demand for vibration and noise was redesigned by increasing the flow uniformity at the impeller discharge,implemented by combinations of more than two parameters.First,increasing the number of the impeller blades was intended to enhance the bounding effect that the blades imposed on the fluid.Subsequently,increasing the radial gap between the impeller and volute was applied to reduce the rotor-stator interaction.Finally,the staggered arrangement was optimized to weaken the efficacy of the interference superposition.Based on numerical simulation,the steady and unsteady characteristics of the pump models were calculated.From the fluctuation analysis in the frequency domain,the dimensionless pressure fluctuation amplitude at the blade passing frequency and its harmonics,located on the monitoring points in the redesigned pumps(both with larger radial gap),are reduced a lot.Further,in the volute of the model with new impellers staggered at 12°,the average value for the dimensionless pressure fluctuation amplitude decreases to 6%of that in prototype pump.The dimensionless rootmean-square pressure contour on the mid-span of the impeller tends to be more uniform in the redesigned models(both with larger radial gap);similarly,the pressure contour on the mid-section of the volute presents good uniformity in these models,which in turn demonstrating a reduction in the pressure fluctuation intensity.The results reveal the mechanism of pressure fluctuation reduction in a double-suction centrifugal pump,and the results of this study could provide a reference for pressure fluctuation reduction and vibration performance reinforcement of doublesuction centrifugal pumps and other pumps.

CFD simulation of pressure fluctuation characteristics in the gas-solid fluidized bed:Comparisons with experiments

A simple hydrodynamic model based on two-fluid theory, taking into account the effect of discrete particles on both the gas- and solid-phase momentum equations, was used to numerically investigate the pressure fluctuation characteristics in a gas-solid fluidized bed with the aid of CFX 4.4, a commercial CFD software package, by adding user-defined Fortran subroutines. Numerical simulations together with typical experimental measurements show that pressure fluctuations originate above the distributor when a gas pulse is injected into the fluidized bed. The pressure above the bubble gradually increases due to the presence of a rising bubble. When the bubble passes through the bed surface, the pressure near the bed surface gradually decreases to a lower value. Moreover, the pressure signals in the bubbling fluidized beds show obviously periodic characteristics. The major frequency of pressure fluctuations at the same vertical position is affected slightly by the operating gas velocity, and the amplitude of pressure fluctuations is related to both the operating gas velocity and the vertical height. In this study, the influence of the operating gas velocity on the pressure wave propagation velocity can be ignored, and only two peak frequencies in the power spectrum of the pressure fluctuations are observed which are associated with the bubble formation above the distributor and its eruption at the bed surface.