Radial Pump Research Articles

Temporal trends in major bleeding after primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction from 2003 to 2017: the Western Denmark Heart Registry

Abstract Background Management of patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has changed during the last two decades. Introduction of more potent platelet inhibitors may carry an increased risk of bleeding complications, while other therapeutic options, such as use of radial artery access and proton pump inhibitors may reduce bleeding risk. The combined impact of these treatment changes on bleeding risk in patients with STEMI remains unknown. Purpose To examine temporal trends in 1-year risk of major bleeding after STEMI treated with primary PCI from 2003 to 2017. Methods We used the Western Denmark Heart Registry to identify first-time PCI-treated patients undergoing primary PCI for STEMI from 2003 to 2017. Patients were divided into 4 calendar periods based on the time of STEMI. The main outcome was 1-year risk of major bleeding defined as a hospital admission for bleeding using a validated definition with high accuracy. Additionally, the 1-year risk of major bleeding in STEMI patients was compared with the risk in an age- and sex-matched general population cohort without prior coronary artery disease. Results From 2003 to 2017, we identified 18,540 patients treated with primary PCI for STEMI (median age 64 years, 75% men)and 92,700 age- and sex-matched individuals. The 1-year risk of major bleeding after STEMI was similar across the different time periods; 4.1% in 2003-2006, 3.8% in 2007-2010, 3.8% in 2011-2014, and 4.5% in 2015-2017. The adjusted HR for bleeding in STEMI patients was 1.03 (95% CI 0.83-1.26) when comparing the latest period with the earliest period. The age- and sex-matched general population exhibited a 1-year risk of major bleeding of around 1% in all time periods (Figure 1). Conclusions Despite changes in management, the 1-year risk of major bleeding remained stable around 4% after primary PCI-treated STEMI from 2003 to 2017. This risk was approximately 4 times higher than the bleeding risk observed in an age- and sex-matched general population.

Determining the Head Characteristics of Radial Centrifugal Pumps under the Impact of Prewhirl

The flow rate is a significant factor in the operation of centrifugal pumps. The characteristic curve of the pump head is frequently employed in the calculation of the flow rate. Nevertheless, this may be subject to alteration because of prewhirl on the suction side of the pump. Calculating the changes in the head’s characteristic curve reveals a change in hydraulic losses. The impact of prewhirl on hydraulic losses is investigated by experimental and numerical analysis of two radial centrifugal pumps. It is demonstrated that the primary changes occur in the pump impeller losses. Relative velocity is a significant factor in this context. Alterations in the pumps’ configurations result in a range of secondary flows and shock losses at the leading edge of the blades. A physical model, derived on the basis of the relative velocity, is used to predict the characteristic curves of radial centrifugal pumps with prewhirl with a high degree of accuracy. The results demonstrate a notable enhancement in comparison to modelling techniques that do not incorporate the fluctuating hydraulic losses.

The Effects of Liquid Density and Impeller Size with Volute Clearance on the Performance of Radial Blade Centrifugal Pumps: An Experimental Approach

This study was carried out to experimentally investigate the effect of impeller size with volute clearance and liquid density on the performance of radial blade centrifugal pumps. Three impeller sizes of 121.54mm, 109.38mm and 97.23mm with respective volute clearance of 6mm, 12mm and 18mm were considered, and five different liquid blend which comprise of water, two liquids that are denser than water and two other liquids that are less-dense than water (with respective liquid densities of: 1197 kg/m3 , 1097 kg/m3 , 1000kg/m3 , 898.2 kg/m3 and 798.4 kg/m3 ). In the experimental set-up, the pump flow capacity were varied from 12m3 /hr to 62m3 /hr at interval of 5m3 /hr and the corresponding pump power consumption, attained pump head were recorded and pump efficiency were determined. Microsoft excel was used to evaluate the trend, performance trend was used to develop the pump performance model showing the relationship between the various parameters. The results from the investigation revealed that with the various impeller sizes of 121.54mm, 109.38mm and 97.23mm of respective volute clearance of 6mm, 12mm and 18mm, the attained optimum efficiency were 74.42%, 54.78 and 33.54% respectively at a correspondence optimum pump head of 23.66m, 20.60m and 18.87m. The results also showed that there is a direct relationship between pump power consumption and process liquid density, while showing an inverse linear relationship between the pump instantaneous start up power and impeller diameter. It was therefore concluded among others that liquid with higher density will usually require higher power to initiate and maintain flow at constant flow rate and impeller size. It is then recommended among others that pump designers, application engineers and users of centrifugal pumps should consider possible increase in pump power consumption when working with a process application that has higher tendency for dynamic increase on the process fluid density.

Machine Learning-Based Prediction of NPSH, Noise, and Vibration Levels in Radial Pumps Under Cavitation Conditions

Cavitation, a physical phenomenon that detrimentally affects pump performance and reduces pump life, can cause wear on pump elements. Various engineering methods have been developed to identify the initiation and full development of the cavitation process. One such method is the determination of the net positive suction head (NPSH) through a 3% decrease in total head (Hm) at a constant flow rate. In radial pumps, commonly used in agricultural irrigation and industry, cavitation conditions result in a sudden drop in the Hm-Q curve, making it challenging to detect the 3% Hm value drop. This study differs from others in the literature by modelling NPSH, noise, and vibration levels using three machine learning models, specifically artificial neural networks (ANN), support vector machines (SVM), and decision tree regression (DTR). The best-performing model predicts NPSH, noise, and vibration levels corresponding to a 3% decrease in Hm level. The present study determined the NPSH values of a horizontal shaft centrifugal pump at different flow rates and constant operating speed, and the vibration and noise levels were measured for these NPSH values. For each of the NPSH, noise, and vibration levels, ANN, SVM and DTR models were created. The performances of these models were evaluated using criteria such as root mean squared error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). In addition, Taylor and error box diagrams were created. The ANN model and DTR yielded high accuracy predictions for NPSH values (R2 = 0.86 and R2 = 0.8, respectively). The ANN model provided the best prediction performance for noise and vibration levels. By entering the level of 3% drop in the Hm value of the pump as external data input to the ANN model, NPSH3, noise, and vibration levels were determined. The ANN models can be effectively employed to determine NPSH3, noise, and vibration levels, particularly in radial flow pumps, where detecting 3% reductions in manometric height value is challenging.

Investigations on affinity law under gas–liquid conditions in multistage radial and mixed-flow multiphase pumps

Affinity laws have been widely used in pump design and simulation under high-temperature and corrosive conditions. By applying such laws, it is possible to shorten development cycles and reduce test costs. However, current applications of affinity laws are still limited to liquid conditions. In this paper, expressions for affinity laws and their applicability are investigated for multistage radial and mixed-flow multiphase pumps under gas–liquid conditions. A high-pressure (30 MPa) gas–liquid experimental platform is constructed, and three-stage and 25-stage radial pumps and a 15-stage mixed-flow pump are investigated, with specific speeds of 107 and 216. With gas compressibility taken into account, the gas–liquid two-phase flow rate, head, and power, and the corresponding dimensionless hydraulic coefficients, are defined for multiphase pumps. The deterioration of gas–liquid pressurization performance is found to be divided into three processes with different dynamic mechanisms, corresponding to three flow patterns. The inlet gas volume fraction of pump is used to judge dynamic similarity. At the same inlet gas volume fractions λ1 = λ2, when the gas–liquid flows in two pumps have the same flow pattern, dynamic similarity will be satisfied. The affinity law that is established shows good applicability to the three-stage radial multiphase pump, with goodness of fit R2 larger than 0.9 for the two-phase Ψm–Φm and Πm–Φm performance curves. Finally, experimental results indicate that the affinity law also has good applicability to multiphase pumps with different stage numbers and blade structures under gas–liquid conditions.

Design and Sensitivity Analysis of Mechanically Actuated Digital Radial Piston Pumps

One major challenge in fluid power is the improvement and optimization of the efficiency of mobile hydraulic systems. Conventional fluid power systems often exhibit relatively low overall efficiencies caused by inefficiencies in the various components, such as a prime mover, variable displacement pump, valves, fittings, hoses, and actuators. While each component contributes to the losses in the overall system, the pump converts the mechanical shaft energy from the prime mover to energy transmitted hydraulically and is one of the most crucial components impacting overall system efficiency. Using on/off technologies, new pump architectures have enabled the opportunity to increase the efficiency over conventional designs using positive sealing valves in place of conventional port plate designs. This work proposes, investigates, and assesses the development and optimization of a digital variable displacement pump using a novel cam actuation technique on radial piston pumps. The novelty of this work is the development and parameter optimization of a mechanically actuated digital radial piston pump that can achieve high efficiencies from minimum to maximum displacement compared to common conventional variable displacement pump technologies. In this study, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to study the parameters of the system to optimize the pump. The parameters assessed in this study include: the valve bore size, cam transition and compression angles, piston diameter, and dead volume in the pumping chamber. The simulation results show that after optimizing the parameters of the system, the pump in design could reach a maximum efficiency of approximately 93% and was capable of upholding efficiencies above 80% between 30–100% displacement.

A numerical study of clogging analysis in submersible drainage pump

Erosion of material surface due to collisions with solid particles has become a challenge to several engineering fields. Therefore, it is necessary to effectively design radial flow pumps that mitigate the sediment particles’ clogging effect from the system performance. This study aims to analyse and identify the clogging development of a newly designed submersible pump using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. The particle trajectory was accounted Tabakoff–Grant erosion model for predicting the clogging impact. The experimental pump performance results obtained by this study were used to validate the numerical results of the submersible pump. Pump results revealed a good agreement between the two marks, especially the head of the pump was obtained at a flow rate of 0.165 m3/min. When considering the motor power factor of 0.78, the pump efficiency was found to be 46%, and the test result was well-matched. Also, for combined cavitation-erosion, the performance characteristics of erosion rate density increase linearly. At a flow rate of 0.16 m3/min, the erosion rate density of the original model was more significant than the revised model. Furthermore, compared to the original model significantly reduced the adverse clogging effects on the impeller blades of the revised model.

Design and experimental validation of a valve-distributed water radial piston pump

In underground coal mining, there is an urgent need for reducing the noise, hydraulic shock, and leakage of reciprocating pumps. Flow pulsation is strongly dependent on the number of pistons for single-acting reciprocating pumps. Water hydraulic radial piston pumps (RPPs) allow the pistons to be radially distributed, which makes the multi-piston design easier compared to traditional single-acting reciprocating piston pumps. In this study, a novel valve-distributed water RPP was developed in which the star wheel assembled on the camshaft is used to drive the connecting rod-crosshead-piston assembly and realize the reciprocation of the piston and suction-discharge of the pump check valves. Mathematical and numerical models representing the RPP were built using MATLAB and AMESim, respectively. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics analyses were performed to investigate the internal flow field of the suction and discharge circuits as well as the flow characteristics of the discharge valve opening. A prototype pump was manufactured and tested for 200 h and then disassembled to evaluate the wear condition. The tested instant flow rates were lower than those obtained from the theoretical and simulation analyses. The experimental results also revealed that the average flow rates were almost independent of the output pressure and that the volumetric efficiency decreased with increasing rotational speed when the output pressure was larger than 25 MPa. Inspecting the disassembled water RPP revealed that scuffing problems occurred in the pistons, whereas the other components remained intact. The findings of this study offer a reference for water hydraulic power units in various applications and for investigating the intensity of water hydraulics.

A Babcock-Leighton dynamo model of the Sun incorporating toroidal flux loss and the helioseismically inferred meridional flow

Context. Key elements of the Babcock-Leighton model for the solar dynamo are increasingly constrained by observations. Aims. We investigate whether the Babcock-Leighton flux-transport dynamo model remains in agreement with observations if the meridional flow profile is taken from helioseismic inversions. Additionally, we investigate the effect of the loss of toroidal flux through the solar surface. Methods. We employ the two-dimensional flux-transport Babcock-Leighton dynamo framework. We use the helioseismically inferred meridional flow profile, and include toroidal flux loss in a way that is consistent with the amount of poloidal flux generated by Joy’s law. Our model does not impose a preference for emergences at low latitudes; however, we do require that the model produces such a preference. Results. We can find solutions that are in general agreement with observations, including the latitudinal migration of the butterfly wings and the 11 year period of the cycle. The most important free parameters in the model are the depth to which the radial turbulent pumping extends and the turbulent diffusivity in the lower half of the convection zone. We find that the pumping needs to extend to depths of about 0.80 R⊙ and that the bulk turbulent diffusivity needs to be around 10 km2 s−1 or less. We find that the emergences are restricted to low latitudes without the need to impose such a preference. Conclusions. The flux-transport Babcock-Leighton model, incorporating the helioseismically inferred meridional flow and toroidal field loss term, is compatible with the properties of the observed butterfly diagram and with the observed toroidal loss rate. Reasonably tight constraints are placed on the remaining free parameters. The pumping needs to be just below the depth corresponding to the location where the meridional flow changes direction, and where numerical simulations suggest the convection zone becomes marginally subadiabatic. However, our linear model does not reproduce the observed ‘rush to the poles’ of the diffuse surface radial field resulting from the decay of sunspots; reproducing this might require the imposition of a preference for flux to emerge near the equator.

RADIAL PISTON PUMP WITH A COMPENSATING STATOR PROFILE FOR ELIMINATE FEED LOSSES DUE TO FLUID SUBSIDENCE

In this work, we consider an unregulated radial piston pump with a compensating profile of the stator surface. This design eliminates feed losses due to dynamic compression and subsidence of liquid in the working chamber under the pressure formed in the operating hydraulic system. Radial piston hydraulic machines operate at pressures of 40 – 60 mPa and higher. At a pressure of 45 mPa, i.e., the case considered in the paper, the volume of liquid subsidence in the working chamber and the connecting channel reaches almost 3 %. This results in a hydraulic shock that reduces the volumetric efficiency of the pump. The level of linear subsidence, equivalent to the reduction of the plunger stroke, equals 2.54 mm at a working chamber diameter of 25 mm, which is more than 10 %. According to the level of linear subsidence, the stator inner surface correction parameter δst is set, which increases the plunger stroke and displaced fluid volume as if the pressure in the hydraulic system were zero. The dimensions of the plunger shank are calculated, at which the suction conditions do not deteriorate while the subsidence is reduced to 2.6 % due to decreasing the volume of the connecting channel of the pump working chamber.

Physical Modelling of the Set of Performance Curves for Radial Centrifugal Pumps to Determine the Flow Rate

To depict the pump power characteristics of radial centrifugal pumps, a physical model was developed. The model relies on established empirical equations. To parameterize the model for specific pumps, physically interpretable tuning factors were integrated. The tuning factors are identified by using the Levenberg–Marquardt method, which was applied to the characteristic curve at a constant speed. A cross-validation of the physical model highlighted the advantage of representing the set of performance curves with less deviation compared to approximation functions. Calculating the entire set of performance curves requires only one pump characteristic curve at a constant speed. Therefore, only a single measurement is necessary. Furthermore, the physical model can be used to calculate the changes in the set of performance curves due to prewhirl. This increases the accuracy of flow rate calculations when prewhirl occurs.

Digitalization of Radial Piston Pumps through Internal Mechanically Actuated Designs

Digital hydraulics is a technology gaining perceptible growth in fluid power research. The advantages of digital fluid power systems can be realized through improved system efficiencies, energy savings, increased productivity, and system performance compared to traditional fluid power systems. Conventional check valve pumps use differential pressures to deliver pressurized flow to the system. Digital fluid power pumps enable conventional check valve pumps to achieve variable displacements by enhancing the controllability of the inlet and outlet valves through digital hydraulic technologies and techniques. The benefit of this technology is the use of positive sealing check valves with lower leakage losses compared to typical variable displacement pumps, increasing the unit’s overall efficiency. The primary focus of prior digital pump/motor research has been on digital actuation using electronic solenoids to actuate or latch the valves. While these electrical systems provide a platform for digital hydraulic techniques, they come with a cost: added energy sources, advanced controls, and expensive data acquisition systems. Research has also shown that minor valve timing inconsistencies can limit the potential energy savings of digital pumps in electrically actuated systems. A system configuration that promotes the advantages of digital hydraulics while mitigating the disadvantages associated with electrical systems is mechanically actuated systems. This work discusses variable cams and their advantages/disadvantages in digital radial piston pump/motor technologies. The significance of this work is the investigation of the digitalization of radial piston pumps through mechanically actuated valving systems, which has yet to be implemented in prior research. This paper evaluates various design concepts for commercializing digital radial piston pumps using mechanically actuated cams. A two-quadrant pump and a four-quadrant pump/motor design are simulated to assess their potential efficiency across the bandwidth of their displacement. The results show that the two systems can achieve relatively high efficiencies across their displacement bandwidth but show room for further improvement by optimizing these systems. This study is the first step in designing an integrated mechanically actuated variable cam system in digital radial piston pumps.

Blade Number Effects in Radial Disc Pump Impellers: Overall Performances with Cavitation Sensitivity Analysis

Straight radial impeller disc pumps are widely used in several industrial applications for hard-to-pump working flow media, such as two-phase inlet conditions, either including non-miscible bubbles or solid particles with a high concentration within the main working flow. Compared with conventional pump designs, these pumps have not been widely studied, because of their particular simple design and low efficiency values that can however reach a maximum value of 0.5 with a good pressure increase in single-phase conditions. Regarding this, no basic analysis has been performed to build one-dimensional design rules considering the relative effects of design parameters proper to these unusual designs like the blade number, blade height and disc spacing. This step is an important one for two-phase flow performance evaluations which are usually derived from single-phase ones as for conventional pumps. Two different disc pump designs with, respectively, 8 and 10 radial blades, are numerically and experimentally investigated. Experimental investigations are performed in an open loop tap water test facility, under various working conditions, combining flow rate and rotational speed variations. The overall pump performances are compared and analyzed, including cavitation onset phenomena that have been found to influence the experimental performances of both pumps. The overall performance modification between both impeller designs is analyzed. Comparisons between CFD and experimental results give reliable results and can be considered to cover a sufficiently wide range of design parameters allowing us to build future adapted design rules for such specific designs.

State of the Art on Two-Phase Non-Miscible Liquid/Gas Flow Transport Analysis in Radial Centrifugal Pumps Part B: Review of Experimental Investigations

This paper aims to summarize the results of several experimental investigations regarding two-phase liquid–gas flows in radial centrifugal pumps. The main objective is to combine the corresponding experimental results and collect the obtained knowledge to provide a better understanding of this configuration. The simultaneous transport of the two phases, the phase segregation, and the regions of safe or critical pump performance were described for a wide variety of pump configurations. This review covers single- and two-phase pumping conditions, performance degradation, pump breakdown, performance hysteresis, different flow regimes, flow regime maps, flow instabilities, and surging. This manuscript also considers the influence of employing different pump configurations on pump performance and flow regimes. This includes comparisons between closed and semi-open impellers, standard and increased tip clearance gaps, and running the pump with and without an inducer. Many of the results discussed have been published in a series of research papers. They were all collected, summarized, and compared systematically in the present review.

Analysis of lubricating characteristics of high-pressure radial piston pump with thermo-elastohydrodynamic coupling

The behavior of piston-cylinder interfaces takes important influences on lubricating characteristics of the high-pressure piston pump. For the sake of revealing the lubricating characteristics of radial piston pumps, a transient thermo-elastohydrodynamic lubrication model to analyze the interface between piston and cylinder is established with considering the effects of the bushing elastic deformation, viscosity-temperature-pressure, heat conduction and piston tilting, on the basis of coupling the finite element method and finite difference method. Furthermore, the influences of design parameters (camshaft speed, inlet pressure and average clearance) on the load carrying capacity, leakage, viscous friction, and temperature rise of the friction-pair interfaces are analyzed. The results indicate that the average clearance has the most significant influence on the lubrication performance. Increasing the average clearance from 2 to 6 μm resulted in a substantial decrease in load carrying capacity by approximately 50% and friction force by approximately 65%. The temperature rise showed a significant reduction of 55%, while the leakage increased by approximately 3-fold.

Three-dimensional simulations of liquid/gas flow through radial centrifugal pumps and the effect of bubble coalescence and breakup on the formation of gas accumulations

Three-dimensional liquid/gas flow mixture simulations of a centrifugal pump are performed by a hybrid two-phase solver, which comprises a blending between a Volume-of-Fluid-like interface-sharpening scheme and a classical homogeneous mixture two-fluid model. The hybrid solver is combined with a population balance model and a turbulence-scale adaptive simulation approach. The experimentally measured head drop due to adherent gas pockets at elevated gas loadings is well reproduced. By a thorough validation with optical measurement data, it is shown that the transition from dispersed bubbles to coherent gas accumulations as well as the steady core of gas pockets and their unsteady wake could be captured without any parameter fitting of coalescence and breakup kernels. Regions of high coalescence activity correlate with locations of gas accumulations, stabilizing the gas pockets in the impeller region. Bubble breakup, in contrast, was primarily found in the wake of the accumulation zones where the tip leakage flow of the semi-open impeller re-enters the blade passage. The particular hybrid solver architecture, together with the resolution of turbulence scales and bubble populations, facilitates the reproduction of bubble coalescence and breakup effects on the formation of gas pockets in centrifugal pumps.

Experimental Study of the Influence of the Geometrical Parameters of the Radial Labyrinth Pump on the Pump’s Operating Parameters and Performance

Centrifugal pumps are the most common machines responsible for the increase in hydraulic energy in a piping system. Their proper design, operation, and maintenance have a strong influence on the performance of technological processes carried out in many industrial units. For the ultra-low specific speed (nq < 10) application, there is no economical reason for these pumps to be used. This is caused by an increase in internal losses in the pump. The article concerns the problem of the hydraulic operation of a new type of labyrinth pump—the radial labyrinth pump (RLP), which is a developed axial unit. The main research method involves the experimental research of hydraulic sets consisting of passive and active discs. The analyses were preceded by dimensional analysis and experimental planning. The study investigates the influence of a chosen structural parameter of both discs on the process of energy conversion obtained in the pump. The influence of parameters such as number, depth and width of the grooves, as well as inlet angle and diameter on the properties of the pump was studied and discussed in detail. The essential novelty of the article is the recognition of the hydraulic performance of the RLP with grooved discs. To extend the scope of the conducted research for the chosen hydraulic sets, a comparison of the mutual cooperation of an active disc with a smooth and grooved passive one was conducted. It was identified that not every geometric relationship of the parameters of the active and passive discs results in an increase in head with respect to cooperation with a smooth passive disc (motionless). The highest head and high efficiencies were obtained for sets with short channels with large inlet diameters—zk12 and zk13—ratios for zk12 d1ap/d2ap = 0.78, and for zk13 zk12 d1ap/d2ap = 0.81. Based on the obtained results, preliminary recommendations for the construction were made.

State of the Art on Two-Phase Non-Miscible Liquid/Gas Flow Transport Analysis in Radial Centrifugal Pumps-Part A: General Considerations on Two-Phase Liquid/Gas Flows in Centrifugal Pumps

Gas–liquid mixtures are present in numerous industrial applications, such as in the process industry, oil production and transport with natural gas, deep-sea extraction, and irrigation. Any pump may have to carry multiphase flows. However, the present document is related to non-miscible liquid/gas flow transport analysis in centrifugal pumps because which topic can be a more challenging task compared with axial and mixed flow machines due to specific body force and buoyancy actions and large density differences between the phases. The present document first introduces the main usual gas–liquid two-phase definitions and simplifications. A dimensional analysis introduces the main flow variables and parameters that are used for pumps. Basic physical aspects of flow motion in an impeller channel are explained, and a rapid description of two-phase flow patterns in radial flow pumps is described. Finally, a review of simplified empirical and semi-empirical analytical models is proposed with their limitations.

State of the Art on Two-Phase Non-Miscible Liquid/Gas Flow Transport Analysis in Radial Centrifugal Pumps Part C: CFD Approaches with Emphasis on Improved Models

Predicting pump performance and ensuring operational reliability under two-phase conditions is a major goal of three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of liquid/gas radial centrifugal pump flows. Hence, 3D CFD methods are increasingly applied to such flows in academia and industry. The CFD analysis of liquid/gas pump flows demands careful selection of sub-models from several fields in CFD, such as two-phase and turbulence modeling, as well as high-quality meshing of complex geometries. This paper presents an overview of current CFD simulation strategies, and recent progress in two-phase modeling is outlined. Particular focus is given to different approaches for dispersed bubbly flow and coherent gas accumulations. For dispersed bubbly flow regions, Euler–Euler Two-Fluid models are discussed, including population balance and bubble interaction models. For coherent gas pocket flow, essentially interface-capturing Volume-of-Fluid methods are applied. A hybrid model is suggested, i.e., a combination of an Euler–Euler Two-Fluid model with interface-capturing properties, predicting bubbly flow regimes as well as regimes with coherent gas pockets. The importance of considering scale-resolving turbulence models for highly-unsteady two-phase flow regions is emphasized.

Tribological considerations for failure restoration and maintenance of radial plunger pump against friction and abrasive wear behavior by microwave cladding of Ni-Graphene

Clean and efficient manufacturing techniques are in great demand in modern industrial facilities. New methods are being developed which are cleaner, environment-friendly, economical, and have better mechanical properties, among others. Due to hot corrosion, Tribological components are often subjected to wear and tear. Graphene (Gr) is a promising material with microwave absorption performance due to its self-lubricating properties, low density, and cementite (Fe3C) formation capabilities with iron. This work examined the effect of self-lubricating behavior and surface hardening of plungers of Austenite alloy by Ni-Gr cladding and glazing. Using silicon carbide abrasive media, a pin-on-disc wear tester was utilized for abrasion testing. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis supplemented with a microhardness test were performed to measure the improvement in the properties of clad samples. The results showed that temperature variation influences phase change and mechanical properties. The Ni-Gr cladding showed dense eutectic microstructure at 750° C. XRD’s results revealed that the disintegration of the cladding layer is reduced due to heat treatment along with the generation of the Fe3C phase. In addition, the deposited specimen confirmations maximum wear resistance and hardness characteristics with a minimum wear rate at 750 °C, just above the steel's first critical temperature.