Performance and radial thrust of single-blade reverse running pump turbine

Abstract

In this study, we proposed the use of a single-blade centrifugal pump, which is widely used as a sewage pump, as a reverse running water turbine with the aim of realizing a nonblocking water turbine. The single-blade centrifugal pumps allow large particles to pass through, and we are hopeful that their use in water turbines will lead to a high degree of passage of foreign bodies. However, what must also be considered is that an excessive fluctuating radial thrust acts upon the runner. Therefore, the performance and the radial thrust of a single-blade reverse running pump turbine were investigated with experiments and numerical analyses, and the component analysis was performed for the radial thrust. The results showed that time-averaged value and fluctuating component of total radial thrust increased as the flow rate increased, and that the dominant components among the fluctuating component of the hydraulic part radial thrust changed depending on the flow rate. This makes it possible to which component to be focused on for each flow rate to examine whether the radial thrust should be reduced or not.