Dazhuan Wu

Numerical Simulation of the Transient Flow in a Centrifugal Pump During Starting Period

Computational fluid dynamics were used to study the three-dimensional unsteady incompressible viscous flows in a centrifugal pump during rapid starting period (≈0.12 s). The rotational speed variation of the field around the impeller was realized by a dynamic slip region method, which combines the dynamic mesh method with nonconformal grid boundaries. In order to avoid introducing errors brought by the externally specified unsteady inlet and outlet boundary conditions, a physical model composed of a pipe system and pump was developed for numerical self-coupling computation. The proposed method makes the computation processes more close to the real conditions. Relations between the instantaneous flow evolutions and the corresponding transient flow-rate, head, efficiency and power were analyzed. Relative velocity comparisons between the transient and the corresponding quasisteady results were discussed. Observations of the formations and evolutions of the primary vortices filled between the startup blades illustrate the features of the transient internal flow. The computational transient performances qualitatively agree with published data, indicating that the present method is capable of solving unsteady flow in a centrifugal pump under transient operations.

Optimization Research of Parallel Pump System for Improving Energy Efficiency

AbstractIn applications where demand on a water supply system changes frequently and widely, the operating conditions of pumps always deviate from the design conditions, and this error leads to poor efficiency and reliability. For energy saving and longer service life, a parallel pump system was supplied, with the valves and rotational speed controls approximating the system’s operating conditions closer to the designed conditions for different consumer loads. The developed optimization model employs a genetic algorithm (GA) aiming at the pumps’ maximum efficiency. A theoretical solution based on the Lagrange multiples method was proved. Experiments on two identical pumps were carried out. The presented model gives optimal input data for the pumps’ rotational speed and valve positions. The results show that control valves are especially helpful for improvement of a single pump’s efficiency and reliability. However, in the system of parallel pumps, throttling losses in the valves caused a significant decli...

Effect of Trailing-Edge Modification of a Mixed-Flow Pump

Modern pumps are designed to guarantee a sufficiently large operating range or to satisfy the performance requirements relative to more than one operating point. This study applies trailing-edge (TE) modification method based on TE rounding in the suction surface to widen the operating range of a mixed-flow pump. The effects of TE modification on the performance and internal flow of the mixed-flow pump are investigated through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. Local Euler head distribution is introduced to reveal the pattern of energy growth along the blade-aligned (BA) streamwise location. A pump model with TE modification is tested, and numerical results agree well with experimental data. The results show that TE modification significantly improves pump efficiency in the high flow rate region by more than 10%. The best pattern of normalized local Euler head distribution (NLEHD) is a convex curve of nearly constant growth rate. The overall heads are also improved, and the flow near the exit of the impeller exhibits better uniformity. This finding demonstrates that a small change in the TE of the impeller can influence flow structure in most areas of impeller channels and that the local Euler head distribution is closely related to pump efficiency. TE modification can effectively improve the performance of the mixed-flow pump with high flow rate.

A study on numerical methods for transient rotating flow induced by starting blades

Based on the finite volume method, three methods for rotational region treatment were presented and validated by simulating two-dimensional accelerating rotational flows. Separate transient incompressible flows induced by cross-shaped blades during starting process were simulated using the dynamic mesh, sliding mesh and dynamic reference frame methods. The computing performance and stability of the three methods were evaluated by comparing numerical results, and the transient characteristics of the accelerating rotational flow were analysed numerically. Results showed that the starting process affected the flow structure and transient characteristics of the accelerating rotational flows. The sliding mesh method showed higher computational efficiency and accuracy compared with other methods, and could easily be extended to solve three-dimensional transient flows in hydraulic machineries under transient operations, such as start-up and shutdown.

Stream-wise distribution of skin-friction drag reduction on a flat plate with bubble injection

To investigate the stream-wise distribution of skin-friction drag reduction on a flat plate with bubble injection, both experiments and simulations of bubble drag reduction (BDR) have been conducted in this paper. Drag reductions at various flow speeds and air injection rates have been tested in cavitation tunnel experiments. Visualization of bubble flow pattern is implemented synchronously. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method, in the framework of Eulerian-Eulerian two fluid modeling, coupled with population balance model (PBM) is used to simulate the bubbly flow along the flat plate. A wide range of bubble sizes considering bubble breakup and coalescence is modeled based on experimental bubble distribution images. Drag and lift forces are fully modeled based on applicable closure models. Both predicted drag reductions and bubble distributions are in reasonable concordance with experimental results. Stream-wise distribution of BDR is revealed based on CFD-PBM numerical results. In particular, fo...

Computational Fluid Dynamics-Based Pump Redesign to Improve Efficiency and Decrease Unsteady Radial Forces

In this study, a double volute centrifugal pump with relative low efficiency and high vibration is redesigned to improve the efficiency and reduce the unsteady radial forces with the aid of unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. The concept of entropy generation rate is applied to evaluate the magnitude and distribution of the loss generation in pumps and it is proved to be a useful technique for loss identification and subsequent redesign process. The local Euler head distribution (LEHD) can represent the energy growth from the blade leading edge (LE) to its trailing edge (TE) on constant span stream surface in a viscous flow field, and the LEHD is proposed to evaluate the flow field on constant span stream surfaces from hub to shroud. To investigate the unsteady internal flow of the centrifugal pump, the unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations (URANS) are solved with realizable k-epsilon turbulence model using the CFD code FLUENT. The impeller is redesigned with the same outlet diameter as the baseline pump. A two-step-form LEHD is recommended to suppress flow separation and secondary flow encountered in the baseline impeller in order to improve the efficiency. The splitter blades are added to improve the hydraulic performance and to reduce unsteady radial forces. The original double volute is substituted by a newly designed single volute one. The hydraulic efficiency of the centrifugal pump based on redesigned impeller with splitter blades and newly designed single volute is about 89.2%, a 3.2% higher than the baseline pump. The pressure fluctuation in the volute is significantly reduced, and the mean and maximum values of unsteady radial force are only 30% and 26.5% of the values for the baseline pump.

Acoustic performance of a water muffler

A water muffler based on Kevlar-reinforced rubber tube and an inner-noise reduction structure is proposed in this study. This muffler aims to achieve optimum vibration damping and hydrodynamic noise reduction. An experimental system is established to investigate the acoustic performance of the proposed water muffler. The function of the system is confirmed by testing the reference tube. Tests on the reference tube at different velocities indicate that the effect of the flow mainly concentrates at the frequency band lower than 400 Hz. The comparison of results of the tests on the reference tube, rubber tube, and water muffler show that the rubber tube can reduce noise at some frequency bands. The insertion of the inner structure reduces noise at a frequency band of 630 to 3150 Hz. Numerical simulations of the acoustic performance of the rubber tube and the water muffler are conducted in commercial software. The simulated results show a good accordance of general tendency with the experimental results which confirms the noise reduction effect of the proposed water muffler.

Investigation of CFD calculation method of a centrifugal pump with unshrouded impeller

Currently, relatively large errors are found in numerical results in some low-specific-speed centrifugal pumps with unshrouded impeller because the effect of clearances and holes are not accurately modeled. Establishing an accurate analytical model to improve performance prediction accuracy is therefore necessary. In this paper, a three-dimensional numerical simulation is conducted to predict the performance of a low-specific-speed centrifugal pump, and the modeling, numerical scheme, and turbulent selection methods are discussed. The pump performance is tested in a model pump test bench, and flow rate, head, power and efficiency of the pump are obtained. The effect of taking into consideration the back-out vane passage, clearance, and balance holes is analyzed by comparing it with experimental results, and the performance prediction methods are validated by experiments. The analysis results show that the pump performance can be accurately predicted by the improved method. Ignoring the back-out vane passage in the calculation model of unshrouded impeller is found to generate better numerical results. Further, the calculation model with the clearances and balance holes can obviously enhance the numerical accuracy. The application of disconnect interface can reduce meshing difficulty but increase the calculation error at the off-design operating point at the same time. Compared with the standard k-ɛ, renormalization group k-ɛ, and Spalart-Allmars models, the Realizable k-ɛ model demonstrates the fastest convergent speed and the highest precision for the unshrouded impeller flow simulation. The proposed modeling and numerical simulation methods can improve the performance prediction accuracy of the low-specific-speed centrifugal pumps, and the modeling method is especially suitable for the centrifugal pump with unshrouded impeller.

Experimental Study on a Medium Consistency Pump

An experimental testing rig is built to study the performance of a centrifugal pump used in medium consistency technology (MC technology). Pump performances are tested in different pulp concentration, degas pressure differential, and tip clearance ratio. The results show that in medium concentration, pump head and efficiency decreases with increase of pulp concentration. There is a critical concentration above which pump performance drops. Gas separation effect is influenced by the pressure differential over the degas system and the air content in the pulp suspension. In high concentration and small tip clearance conditions, friction loss increases a great deal and results in an efficiency reduction. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4024865]

Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis on Turbulent Annular Seals of Centrifugal Pumps during Transient Process

The current paper studies the influence of annular seal flow on the transient response of centrifugal pump rotors during the start-up period. A single rotor system and three states of annular seal flow were modeled. These models were solved using numerical integration and finite difference methods. A fluid-structure interaction method was developed. In each time step one of the three annular seal models was chosen to simulate the annular seal flow according to the state of rotor systems. The objective was to obtain a transient response of rotor systems under the influence of fluid-induced forces generated by annular seal flow. This method overcomes some shortcomings of the traditional FSI method by improving the data transfer process between two domains. Calculated results were in good agreement with the experimental results. The annular seal was shown to have a supportive effect on rotor systems. Furthermore, decreasing the seal clearance would enhance this supportive effect. In the transient process, vibration amplitude and critical speed largely changed when the acceleration of the rotor system increased.