Experimental Hardware-in-the-Loop Centrifugal Pump Simulator for Laboratory Purposes

Abstract

A hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) experimental test-bench is suggested for a rotodynamic pump in this paper. The HIL simulator is composed of two separate modules and two variable-speed drive (VSD) systems that are connected with the help of a programmable logical controller (PLC) and a process field bus unit. One of the fundamental components of the suggested simulation approach is the mathematical representation of a rotodynamic pump system embedded into HIL. A number of tests were conducted in order to study the suggested simulation approach. The experiments demonstrated the developed system’s adaptability and precision in replicating the behavior of the rotodynamic pump in various operation modes. A special user interface for the HIL simulation allows for changing the types of preloaded pump characteristics, reading the output data, and controlling operational parameters. The obtained simulation results showed that the proposed approach can be suitable for research purposes.