Part load flow in radial centrifugal pumps

Abstract

Centrifugal pumps are required to sustain a stable operation of the system they support under all operating conditions. Minor modifications of the surfaces defining the pump's water passage can influence the tendency to unstable system operation significantly. The action of such modifications on the flow are yet not fully understood, leading to costly trial and error approaches in the solution of instability problems. The part-load flow in centrifugal pumps is inherently time-dependent due to the interaction of the rotating impeller with the stationary diffuser (Rotor-Stator Interaction, RSI). Furthermore, adverse pressure gradients in the pump diffuser may cause flow separation, potentially inducing symmetry-breaking non-uniformities, either spatially stationary or rotating and either steady or intermittent. Rotating stall, characterized by the presence of distinct cells of flow separation on the circumference, rotating at a fraction of the impeller revolution rate, has been observed in thermal and hydraulic turbomachines. Due to its complexity, the part-load flow in radial centrifugal pumps is a major challenge for numerical flow simulation methods. The present study investigates the part-load flow in radial centrifugal pumps and pump-turbines by experimental and numerical methods, the latter using a finite volume discretization of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation. Physical phenomena of part load flow are evidenced based on three case studies, and the ability of numerical simulation methods to reproduce part-load flow in radial centrifugal pumps qualitatively and quantitatively is assessed. A numerical study of the flow in a high specific speed radial pump-turbine using steady approaches and the hypothesis of angular periodicity between neighboring blade channels evidences the relation of sudden flow topology changes with an increase of viscous losses, impacting on the energy-discharge characteristic, and thus increasing the risk of unstable operation. When the flow rate drops below a critical threshold, the straight through-flow with flow separation zones attached to the guide vanes changes to an asymmetrical flow. Energy is drawn off the mean flow and dissipated in a large vortex-like structure. Besides flow separation in some diffuser channels, time-dependent numerical simulations of the flow in a double suction pump evidence a flow rate imbalance between both impeller sides interacting with asymmetric flow separation in the diffuser. Viscous losses increase substantially as this imbalance occurs, the resulting segment of positive slope in the energy-discharge characteristic is found for a flow rate sensibly different from measurements. Different modes of rotating stall are identified by transient pressure measurements in a low-specific-speed pump-turbine, showing 3 to 5 zones of separated flow, rotating at 0.016 to 0.028 times impeller rotation rate, depending on discharge. For operating conditions where stall with 4 cells is most pronounced, velocity is measured by Laser-Doppler methods at locations of interest. The velocity field is reconstructed with respect to the passage of stall cells by definition of a stall phase obtained from simultaneous transient pressure measurements. Time-dependent numerical simulation predicting rotating stall with 4 cells shows velocity fields that are in reasonable agreement with the measured velocity fields, but occurring at a sensibly higher flow rate than found from experiments. In consideration of the quantitative shortcomings of the numerical simulation, a novel modelling approach is proposed: Replacing the costly 3-dimensional simulation of the major part of the impeller channels by a 1-dimensional model allows a significant economy in computational resources, allowing an improved modeling for the remainder of the domain at constant computational cost. The model is validated with the challenging cases of rotating stall and impeller side flow rate imbalance. The satisfying coherence of the results with the simulation including the entire impeller channels qualifies this approach for numerous turbomachinery applications. It could also provide improved, time-dependent boundary conditions for draft tube vortex rope simulations at reasonable computational cost. Parameter studies modifying deliberately some quantities of mean flow and turbulence at the modeled boundary surfaces can be implemented in the framework of the method.