Abstract
Nowadays, single and multistage centrifugal pumps are widely used in industrial and mining enterprises. One of the most important components of a centrifugal pump is the impeller. The performance characteristics are related to the pump comprising the head and the overall efficiency rely a great deal on the impeller geometry. In this work, effects of blade exit angle change on hydraulic efficiency of a multi stage pump impeller are investigated via Ansys-Fluent computational fluid dynamics software for constant width impeller entrance and exit gates, blade numbers and blade thickness. Firstly, the flow volume of a centrifugal pump impeller is generated and then mesh structure is formed for the full impeller flow volume. Secondly, rotational periodic flow model are adopted in order to examine the effect of periodic flow assumption on the performance predictions. Corresponding to the available experimental data, inlet mass flow rate, outlet static pressure and rotation of impeller are taken as 0.02m3s-1, 450 kPa and 2950 rpm, respectively for the water fluid. No slip boundary condition is exposed to all solid of surface in the flow volume. The continuity and Navier-Stokes equations with the k-ε turbulence model and the standard wall functions are used. During the study, numerical analyses are conducted for the blade exit angle values of 18°, 20°, 25°, 30° and 35°. In consequence of the performed analyses, it is determined that hydraulic efficiency of the pump impeller value is changed between 81.0-84.6%. The most convenient blade exit angle that yields 84.6% hydraulic efficiency at is 18°. The obtained results show that the blade exit angle range has an impact on the centrifugal pump performance describing the pump head and the hydraulic efficiency.
Highlights
Electrical energy is converted into mechanical energy through pumps that are well known class of turbomachinery
The flow volume of a centrifugal pump impeller is generated and mesh structure is formed for the full impeller flow volume
In order to be sure that the analysis can be performed via periodic simulations, full and periodic impeller runs are performed at the 20o blade exit angle and the results are shown in figure 3
Summary
Electrical energy is converted into mechanical energy through pumps that are well known class of turbomachinery. Pump systems are widely used in water supply, industrial machinery, water transferring systems, agricultural irrigation, water conditioning, heating, cooling and ventilation systems. Considering life-cycle cost, improvements that can be achieved in the efficiency of the pumps has a great importance [1, 2]. A large number of the pumping systems are still designed and produced by conventional methods, and because of that they run at low efficiency. In order to increase pump efficiency, detailed investigation about the flow in impeller is still required. Studies regarding the elaborate investigation of the flow in pumps can provide the determination of unwanted physical attributes of the flow and the elimination of them with smart engineering solutions
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