Noise comparison of centrifugal pump operating in pump and turbine mode

Abstract

Investigations regarding the relation of noise performance for centrifugal pump operating in pump and turbine modes continue to be inadequate. This paper presents a series of comparisons of flow-induced noise for both operation modes. The interior flow-borne noise and structure modal were verified through experiments. The flow-borne noise was calculated by the acoustic boundary element method (ABEM), and the flow-induced structure noise was obtained by the coupled acoustic boundary element method (ABEM)/structure finite element method (SFEM). The results show that in pump mode, the pressure fluctuation in the volute is comparable to that in the outlet pipe, but in turbine mode, the pressure fluctuation in the impeller is comparable to that in the draft tube. The main frequency of interior flow-borne noise lies at blade passing frequency (BPF) and it shifts to the 9th BPF for interior flow-induced structure noise. The peak values at horizontal plane appear at the 5th BPF, and at axial plane, they get the highest sound pressure level (SPL) at the 8th BPF. Comparing with interior noise, the SPL of exterior flow-induced structure noise is incredibly small. At the 5th BPF, the pump body, cover and suspension show higher SPL in both modes. The outer walls of turbine generate relatively larger SPL than those of the pump.