Influence of Blade Exit Angle on the Performance and Internal Flow Pattern of a High-Speed Electric Submersible Pump

Abstract

The impeller vane exit placement angle has a critical role in the flow characteristics of the fluid inside the lobe, thus having a profound effect on the overall pump performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the impeller exit angle on the operating characteristics of a high-speed well submersible pump, and the numerical calculation results of the original model are in good agreement with the experimental results. In this paper, five different impeller vane exit angles, namely 10°, 15°, 20°, 25° and 30°, are selected for numerical analysis based on the original model, and the flow conditions of 0.6 Q, 1.0 Q and 1.4 Q are analyzed for each angle. The results show that the impeller vane exit placement angle not only affects the static pressure distribution, velocity distribution and streamline distribution within the impeller and guide vane, but also has a significant effect on the head curve, power curve and efficiency curve of the well submersible pump. As the flow slip inside the impeller of high-speed well submersible pumps intensifies, the large impeller outlet angle will cause the power of the impeller to increase linearly with the flow rate, thus reducing the pump efficiency. In the low-flow and high-flow conditions, a small outlet angle of 10° will make the efficiency of high-speed submersible pumps higher than in other conditions, and these findings can provide some reference for the optimal design of high-speed submersible pumps.