Numerical investigation on the gas–liquid entraining and separating effects on self-priming performance in a flow-ejecting centrifugal pump

Abstract

To investigate the influence of entraining and separating effect of gas–liquid two-phase on self-priming performance in the flow-ejecting centrifugal pump, three different schemes of adding the baffle plate behind the guide vane were proposed. Experiments on self-priming performance for three different guide vane schemes were carried out, and numerical calculations on entraining property in the ejector and separating property in the chamber were analyzed by means of the Eulerian–Eulerian multiphase flow model. Meanwhile, the frequency domain properties of pressure pulsation and the pump performance curves were obtained to further verify the feasibility of the scheme in practical application. The results show that the simulation analysis agreed well with the test results. The area and magnitude of high velocity region and vorticities in the ejector of scheme 2 are remarkably larger than those of other schemes. Gas–liquid separation efficiency in a pump chamber also significantly improves when the baffle plate behind the guide vane is mounted at an appropriate position. Furthermore, different guide vane schemes have certain impact on the characteristics of internal and unsteady flow pulsation phenomena in model pump but are within the acceptable operation range. The head and efficiency of scheme 2 are also slightly higher than those of the prototype in the full operation range.