Cavitating Flow In Centrifugal Pump Research Articles

An improved turbulence model for predicting unsteady cavitating flows in centrifugal pump

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the unsteady caivitating flows in centrifugal pump, especially for improving the turbulence model to obtain highly resolution results-capable of predicting the cavitation inception, shedding off and collapse procedures. Design/methodology/approach – Both numerical simulations and experimental visualizations were performed in the present paper. An improved RCD turbulence models was proposed by considering three corrected methods: the rotating corrected method, the compressible corrected method and the turbulent viscosity corrected method. Unsteady RANS computations were conducted to compare with the experiments. Findings – The comparison of pump cavitation performance showed that the RCD turbulence model obtained better performance both in non-cavitation and cavitation conditions. The visualization of the cavitation evolution was recorded to validate the unsteady simulations. Good agreement was noticed between calculations and visualizations. It is indicated the RCD model can successfully capture the bubbles detachment and collapse at the rear of the cavity region, since it effectively reduces the eddy viscosity in the multiphase region of liquid and vapor. Furthermore, the eddy viscosity, the instantaneous pressure and density distribution were investigated. The effectiveness of the compressibility was found. Meanwhile, the influence of the rotating corrected method on prediction was explored. It is found that the RCD model solved more unsteady flow characteristics. Originality/value – The current work presented a turbulence model which was much more suitable for predicting the cavitating flow in centrifugal pump.

Application of modified κ-ω model to predicting cavitating flow in centrifugal pump

Considering the compressibility of the cavity in the cavitating flow, this paper presents a modified κ-ω model for predicting the cavitating flow in a centrifugal pump, in which the modified κ-ω model and Schnerr-Sauer cavitation model were combined with ANSYS CFX. To evaluate the modified and standard κ-ω models, numerical simulations were performed with these two models, respectively, and the calculation results were compared with the experimental data. Numerical simulations were executed with three different values of the flow coefficient, and the simulation results of the modified κ-ω model showed agreement with most of the experimental data. The cavitating flow in the centrifugal pump obtained by the modified κ-ω model at the design flow coefficient of 0.102, was analyzed. When the cavitation number decreases, the cavity initially generates on the suction side of the blade near the leading edge and then expands to the outlet of the impeller, and the decrease of the total pressure coefficient mainly occurs upstream of the impeller passage, while the downstream remains almost unaffected by the development of cavitation.