Liquid hydrogen centrifugal pump optimization based on reducing hydraulic loss and improving cavitation

Abstract

According to the operation parameters and the design experience parameters, a liquid hydrogen centrifugal pump was developed and tested to meet an application requirement of small flow and high head in cryogenic systems or cryogenic storage tanks. The test results showed that 6 m of hydraulic loss in the pump at the rated condition and the inlet pressure of the cryogenic fluid decreased and fluctuated, which resulted in the pump being prone to cavitation. To improve cavitation resistance and hydraulic efficiency of liquid hydrogen centrifugal pumps, the model was optimized based on the genetic algorithm of MATLAB applying 7 parameters of impeller taken as optimization variables, each sub-objective function was given corresponding weights, and the optimal solution combination at the minimum of the objective function was finally obtained, and an inducer was matched. The results showed that by reducing the angle of the inlet, increasing the diameter of the impeller, and adding an inducer, the cavitation performance of the pump can be improved and the hydraulic loss can be reduced by appropriately reducing the impeller outlet diameter, to improve the head of the pump.A comparison of the performance of the preposition inducer optimized pump with the preliminary pump shows that, at the rated condition point, the head was increased by 4.6 m resulting in an efficiency of 43%. A numerical calculation considered the thermodynamic effect of non-isothermal cryogenic cavitation on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes combined with the k-ε turbulence model was applied for getting the pump hydrodynamic performances. It was proved that the multi-objective optimization method and preposition inducers were effective, and the calculating results were by experimental data well. Feasibility of the model had been validated to a certain extent. It can bring a high level of pump optimization, integration, and quality to new and existing designs.