Abstract
The multiphase rotodynamic pump is widely used in petroleum and gas exploitation, and blade tip clearance may cause flow instability and performance deterioration. In the present work, the influence of tip clearance on the transportation characteristic in a multiphase rotodynamic pump is investigated based on the non-uniform bubble model, in which the bubbles’ coalescence and break-up are considered. The influence mechanism of tip clearance on the energy performance is revealed. The results show that the leakage flow rate increases linearly with the increase in tip clearance, but variation in pump energy performance shows the opposite trend. In addition, a larger tip clearance results in a sharply decreased pressure increment in the impeller, while in the guide vane, the increment is raised slightly. For the 0 mm tip clearance condition, a positive vortex (relative to the impeller rotation direction) is observed in the impeller passage. However, the opposite leakage vortex is also found in the region near the tip clearance when the tip clearance is considered, and the vortex strength increases for a larger tip clearance.
Highlights
Energy is related to human development and social progress, and petroleum and gas resource exploitation has received increasing attention in the recent decades
The experimental results demonstrate that the bubble size is influenced by the inlet gas volume fraction and rotation speed [8]
The influence of tip clearance on the energy performance and the transportation characteristics in a multiphase rotodynamic pump are systematically investigated as follows
Summary
Energy is related to human development and social progress, and petroleum and gas resource exploitation has received increasing attention in the recent decades. It is reported that multiphase pump energy performance is directly related to the interphase forces between liquid and gas phases [12,13]. Results show that the pressure rise of an axial flow pump decreases by 41.39% when the tip clearance size increases from 0 to 0.8 mm under the single-phase condition [28]. Considerable works [30,31] have been conducted to investigate the mechanism of tip leakage flow in hydraulic machinery under the single-phase condition. The influence of tip clearance on the energy performance and the transportation characteristics in a multiphase rotodynamic pump are systematically investigated as follows. The present work provides a foundation for the suppression of tip leakage flow
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