Experimental Research on Flow Conditions of Pump

Abstract

There are many ways to improve flow conditions of pump, such as "ω" type rear wall, vertical columns and bottom sills as well as other engineering measures. They are widespread used and effective in regulating flow patterns and velocity distributions in forebay and sump, however, the difference affecting flow conditions of pump are never evaluated quantitatively before. In this paper, a series of specially designed "ω" type rear wall, vertical columns and bottom sills with different parameters are placed in different places of the sump in turn while keeping the water levels and pump discharge unchanged. A swirl meter is adopted to measure swirl intensities in the suction pipe of pump, and the effects of different intake design schemes and engineering measures on flow conditions of pump are compared quantitatively in terms of swirl angle. The experimental results show that under certain conditions vertical columns and bottom sills can improve flow conditions, but their design parameters and where they are placed in the sump need to be optimized in order to obtain better results. The "ω" type rear wall with bottom pilot cone can considerably reduce the intensity of swirl in the suction pipe of pump, the mechanism of which needs to be studied extensively.