The flow simulation of a low-specific-speed high-speed centrifugal pump

In this paper a general three-dimensional simulation of turbulent fluid flow is presented to predict velocity and pressure fields for a centrifugal pump. A commercial CFD code was used to solve the governing equations of the flow field. In order to study the most suitable turbulence model, three kno...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied mathematical modelling 2011, Vol.35 (1), p.242-249
Main Authors: Jafarzadeh, B., Hajari, A., Alishahi, M.M., Akbari, M.H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Blades
Centrifugal pump
Centrifugal pumps
CFD
Computational fluid dynamics
Computer simulation
Exact sciences and technology
Fluid dynamics
Fluid flow
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
General theory
Inducer
Mathematical models
Mechanical engineering. Machine design
Physics
Pump and compressors (turbocompressors, fans, etc.)
Turbulence modeling
Turbulence models
Turbulent flow
Turbulent flows, convection, and heat transfer
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Summary:In this paper a general three-dimensional simulation of turbulent fluid flow is presented to predict velocity and pressure fields for a centrifugal pump. A commercial CFD code was used to solve the governing equations of the flow field. In order to study the most suitable turbulence model, three known turbulence models of standard k– ε, RNG and RSM were applied. The complex flow configuration required us to use around 5,800,000 cells, and 12 computational nodes (processors) for parallel computing. Simulation results in the form of characteristic curves were compared with available experimental data, and an acceptable agreement was obtained. Additionally, effect of number of blades on the efficiency of pump was studied. The number of blades was changed from 5 to 7. The results show that the impeller with 7 blades has the highest head coefficient. Finally, it was observed also that the position of blades with respect to the tongue of volute has great effect on the start of the separation. Thus, to analyze the effect of blade number on the characteristics of the pump, the position of blade and tongue should be similar to each other. Investigations of this kind may help to reduce the required experimental work for the development and design of such devices.
ISSN:0307-904X
DOI:10.1016/j.apm.2010.05.021