Abstract
The paper refers to the analysis of interactions between the impeller and the vaned diffuser on the air model of a radial flow pump. The study deals with a numerical simulation of the flow for a full 360°entire impeller and diffuser. The task is carried out close to design operating conditions and for one particular position of the impeller blade with respect to diffuser frame. Among all the results, it has been decided to mainly focus on the flow pattern at the exit part inside the impeller coming from the diffuser vanes interactions. The results are compared to the available PIV measurements.
Highlights
The flow in a radial pump is highly three dimensional, spatially nonuniform, and intrinsically unsteady
The so-called jet and wake structure that have been highlighted by several authors such as Johnston and Dean [4] impose nonuniform inlet conditions to vaned diffuser and strong interactions between rotor and stator blades
A full 360◦ pump impeller and diffuser flow numerical simulation in frozen rotor mode has been presented. It focuses on the flow analysis at the outlet part of the impeller facing a vaned diffuser
Summary
The flow in a radial pump is highly three dimensional, spatially nonuniform, and intrinsically unsteady. The diffuser vanes are found to play a major role in establishing the circumferential flow fields near the exit of the impeller [3]. This rotorstator interaction results in both upstream and downstream flow variations in time and space, which generates noise, vibrations, and unfavorable characteristics to pump performance even at design conditions. The so-called jet and wake structure that have been highlighted by several authors such as Johnston and Dean [4] impose nonuniform inlet conditions to vaned diffuser and strong interactions between rotor and stator blades. Knowledge improvement of unsteady effects and rotor-stator interactions in radial flow pumps has already been a favorite research theme for a large number of researchers. A great number of rotor-stator interactions analyses based on experimental and modeling activities have been realized [5, 6], but still further investigations are needed so that pump designs could benefit from controlling the undesirable aspects in order to construct them in a more reliable and quiet operation
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