Shuai Yang

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.

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.

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.

Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulation of valve-induced water hammer

In this study, three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulation was adopted to evaluate the valve-induced water hammer phenomena in a typical tank-pipeline-valve-tank system. Meanwhile, one-dimensional analysis based on method of characteristics was also used for comparison and reference. As for the computational fluid dynamics model, the water hammer event was successfully simulated by using the sliding mesh technology and considering water compressibility. The key factors affecting simulation results were investigated in detail. It is found that the size of time step has an obvious effect on the attenuation of the wave and there exists a best time step. The obtained simulation results have a good agreement with the experimental data, which shows an unquestionable advantage over the method of characteristics calculation in predicting valve-induced water hammer. In addition, the computational fluid dynamics simulation can also provide a visualization of the pressure and flow evolutions during the transient process.

Transient Characteristics of a Closed-Loop Pipe System During Pump Stopping Periods

In order to study the transient characteristics of a closed-loop pipe system with room temperature water, experiments were carried out based on different pump stopping periods from rate rotational speed to zero. Various stopping periods were realized by changing the rotational inertia of the rotors, controlling the frequency of the motor and braking the shaft. Experimental results of different operating schemes were compared, and transient flow rate of the pipe system and transient characteristics of the pump were analyzed. The influences of the kinetic energy of the loop fluid and pump rotors to the stopping periods were summarized. Results show that rapid change of the pump operating conditions occurs during the stopping period and transient flow rate of the pipe system and characteristics of the pump depend largely on the way of stopping. The kinetic energy stored in the pump can drive the impeller keeping rotating for more time after the motor is shutdown. Due to the kinetic energy stored in the loop pipe, the flow rate does not reach zero immediately after the rotational speed reaches zero. The inertia of pump rotor and fluid inertia affect the impact of fluid flow and the duration of the loop during pump stopping period.

A Control Method to Balance the Efficiency and Reliability of a Time-Delayed Pump-Valve System

The efficiency and reliability of pumps are highly related to their operation conditions. The concept of the optimization pump operation conditions is to adjust the operation point of the pump to obtain higher reliability at the cost of lower system efficiency using a joint regulation of valve and frequency convertor. This paper realizes the control of the fluid conveying system based on the optimization results. The system is a nonlinear Multi-Input Multioutput (MIMO) system with time delays. In this paper, the time delays are separated from the system. The delay-free system is linearized using input-output linearization and controlled using a sliding mode method. A modified Smith predictor is used to compensate time delays of the system. The control strategy is validated to be effective on the test bench. The comparison of energy consumption and operation point deviation between conventional speed regulation and the new method is presented.

A Control Strategy to Balance Efficiency and Reliability for Pump System

In this paper, a model composed of pump and valves used to achieve flow rate regulation is built. A control strategy to improve reliability and efficiency of the pump-valve system is introduced. An optimizer and a controller are developed. The optimizer will calculate the pressure loss across the valve and the head of the pump to limit the operation point of the pump to nearby the design point. The controller manages the control of flow rate and the pressure loss across the valve. The controlled variables of the control system are flow rate and the pressure loss across the valve, the control variables are the speed of pump and the lift of valve. This makes the system a coupled nonlinear Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) system. A differential geometry method is introduced to decouple the MIMO system. The result of the control strategy is shown in simulations. The difference between traditional PID method and the new method is compared. The result shows that the new method sacrifices power consumption for a better reliability. This paper provides an option to improve reliability of pump systems.Copyright