Numerical and experimental investigation of tank-type axial-flow pump device

Abstract

By means of numerical simulation and experimental verification, this article investigates the hydraulic performance and pressure fluctuation of a tank-style axial-flow pump device. With orthogonal test, 16 schemes are designed concerning the different flow conditions of the inlet and outlet passages, and simulated calculations are done; then the non-steady numerical simulation of pressure fluctuation is carried out for the optimized pump device; a model test finally verifies the reliability of the simulated numerical values of the optimized scheme. The results show that using the orthogonal test, an optimized scheme of the inlet and outlet passages can be obtained; compared with the initial scheme, the optimized one reduces the hydraulic loss by 1.3 cm in the inlet passage and 7.96 cm in the outlet passage; numerical simulation witnesses the highest pump operating efficiency of 70.04%, efficiency of 66.82% with the design head of 1.36 m, and the corresponding flow of 34.31 m3/s; the model test verifies all the simulated values of the optimized scheme with the highest pump operating efficiency reaching 71.5% and the test efficiency arriving at about 64% when the design head is 1.36 m. Meanwhile, the highest pressure fluctuation appears at the entrance of the impeller; the main frequency of the impeller and guide vane pressure fluctuation is 5 Hz depending on the frequency of the blade. This study offers reference for similar pump station project.