Numerical investigation on vibration and noise induced by unsteady flow in an axial-flow pump

Abstract

Full-scale structural vibration and noise induced by flow in an axial-flow pump was simulated by a hybrid numerical method. An unsteady flow field was solved by a large eddy simulation-based computational fluid dynamics commercial code, Fluent. An experimental validation on pressure fluctuations was performed to impose an appropriate vibration exciting source. The consistency between the computed results and experimental tests were interesting. The modes of the axial-flow pump were computed by the finite element method. After that, the pump vibration and sound field were solved using a coupled vibro-acoustic model. The numerical results indicated that the the blade-passing frequency was the dominant frequency of the vibration acceleration of the pump. This result was consistent with frequency spectral characteristics of unsteady pressure fluctuation. Finally, comparisons of the vibration acceleration between the computed results and the experimental test were conducted. These comparisons validated the computed results. This study shows that using the hybrid numerical method to evaluate the flow-induced vibration and noise generated in an axial-flow pump is feasible.