Hydraulic performance improvement of the bidirectional pit pump installation based on CFD

Abstract

At present, the efficiency of bidirectional pit pump installation with lift under 2m is still low because of lack of research on it in the past. In the paper, the CFD numerical method and experimental test were applied to study flow characteristic of bidirectional pit pump installation under positive and reverse condition. Through changing airfoil type and position of blade and stay vane, the comprehensive performance of improved model were obtained by calculating many different models. The results showed that when improved model is obtained with type A runner with 4 blades that is 0.7D away from pit exit and unsymmetrical guide vane 0.25dh which away from the impeller outlet, and the flow pattern of the improved solution is steady with high efficiency. Compared with the original scheme, the efficiency of positive and reverse design condition reach to 67.23% and 58.32% respectively, which is increased 6% more than original model on the design condition and 5% on the optimum operating condition, and it achieved the purpose of improvement. According to the runner blade angle of the optimization solution, model synthetic characteristic curve was drawn and internal flow field characteristics was analyzed under optimal positive and reverse conditions. The numerical calculation shows that owing to the lack of stay vane to recycle the energy in outlet runner chamber, the water flow regime is not steady enough in the outlet passage, and that is the main reason for lower efficiency at reverse condition than that at positive condition.