5th WSEAS Int. Conf.

on FLUID MECHANICS (FLUIDS'08) Acapulco, Mexico, January 25-27, 2008

Geometric Optimisation of a Jet Pump

ASSIA HELALI, JEAN-LOUIS KUENY
Laboratoire des Ecoulements Gophysiques et Industrielles
Ecole Nationale Suprieure dHydraulique et de Mcanique de Grenoble
Institut National polytechnique de Grenoble
BP 53 Grenoble 38402 Cedex 9
France
assia.helali@hmg.inpg.fr and Jean-Louis.Kueny@hmg.inpg.fr
Abstract: The study presented in this paper deals with optimal design of swimming pool filtering
system, namely jet pump. For this purpose, an optimisation tool EASY based on evolutionary
algorithm is coupled with computational fluid dynamics software Fine/Turbo in order to evaluate
the jet pump performances. The flow motion is governed by steady incompressible time averaged
Navier-Stokes equations in the Cartesian coordinate system and the turbulence is parameterized by
using K- model with wall functions. The optimization cycle is performed using flow solver for flow
characteristics evaluation coupled with EAs and artificial neural networks (ANNs) in order to sought
the minimum of the objective function This procedure is fully automatic (coupling geometry
generation, NS, EAs and ANNs). The process ends when the number of generations predefined is
reached. Our objective is to reduce pumping costs in term of electric energy by making some changes
to the initial geometry shape.
Key-words : Jet pump, Computational fluid dynamics, Optimal design, Evolutionary algorithms.

1 Introduction
Jet pump has been widely used in various

engineering and industrial applications.

Examples include marine industry, oil
energy and filtration system. Among of
these practical applications, we refer to the
faltering system of swimming pools. The
process consists of pumping water from the
pool through the filter system and returning
it to the pool. This system is suitable for
clean the dirty water with suspended solids.
The recirculation system must operate 24
hours a day to assure filtration and
disinfection of the pool water. The source of
the power used to re-circulate the water
through the system is the jet-pump.
Improving the jet-pump design is of crucial
importance to reducing the amount of energy
spent on pump operations and to save the
money. Therefore, jet-pump optimization use
to be a practical and highly effective method
to reduce pumping costs by making some
changes to the initial geometry.

Depending on the number of variables and

objectives considered, optimizing such jetpump problem may be very difficult,
especially for large objectives and
constraints.
In the present investigation only one global
objective is considered in which various
targets and constraints are grouped in one
function. The complete optimization of the
jet pump has required the interaction
between two kinds of numerical tools: the
first concerns the flow computation based on
CFD calculations which are assured by
FINE/Turbo software already developed by
Numeca International [1 ,2 ,3]. The second
tool consists of optimization software called
EASY based on evolutionary algorithms and
artificial neural networks. This later has been
developed by NTUA (National Technical
University of Athens), [4, 5]). We have also
developed various C++ programs in order to
generate geometry, compute objective
function and for results storage.

The optimal jet-pump can be defined as a

pump that optimizes particular objectives,
while
fulfilling
system
constraints.

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5th WSEAS Int. Conf. on FLUID MECHANICS (FLUIDS'08) Acapulco, Mexico, January 25-27, 2008

2 Problem configuration and

motivations
The fig. 1 presents the general jet pump
geometry [6]. In this configuration, the water
is aspired from the high pressure (HP) inlet
using a propeller entrained by electric motor.
The flow passes through the injector and
entrains the water from the low pressure (LP)
inlet via mixing process between both fluids.
Further downstream a filtering process
occurs when the global flow water
containing possible suspended solids and
impurities passes through a mesh bag located
at the nozzle exit. To avoid pressure losses
around the engine and in the injector, the
flow is orientated by mean of several guide
vanes. In such configuration, the both inlets
HP and BP permit a deeper and a superficial
cleaning respectively.
The ultimate aim of the present work is to
search geometry that, under specific
operating conditions, provides the best
performances in term of the jet pump
efficiency. In order to achieve this goal, we
first describe the objective to be reached and
then we can decide which geometry part can
be optimised.
As mentioned above, the studied jet pump
has two entries HP and LP. The first one is
immersed in the water as well as the whole
electrical device. Thats why in this case of
application we are limited to relatively small
electrical power. This information is
considered as first optimization constraint.
Filtering the highest water quantity in
shortest possible time constitute also our
target. This represents a new objective which
consists of sucking the most possible
quantity of fluid from the two entries (HP
and LP). Since, the fluid flow from HP inlet
is driven by the motor; we aim to benefit
from the HP kinetic energy to entrain at least
the same quantity of fluid from the LP entry.

We have now an overview on the various

targets and constraints linked to the
optimization process. In the next section we
present the geometry parameterization and
the objective function formalism.

Fig. 1: Jet pump system [6].

3 Geometric parameterization
The geometry of the jet pump is simple and
almost axisymmetric, except of the low
pressure LP inlet (Fig 1). In order to simplify
the optimization study and to reduce the
computational time cost, the LP inlet
geometry has been adapted to be
axisymmetric (Fig. 2). The problem
configuration can be then simplified to be
two-dimensional axisymmetric instead of
three-dimensional which minimizes the
computational grid size. With this
consideration, the computational time cost
can be reduced significantly, since the
optimization procedure requires several CFD
calculations.

The last constraint is then linked to the

height of the LP free surface which must
be around the value of -0.03 m for the
most favorable filtering operation. This

Fig. 2: Simplification of the jet pump

geometry [6].

value provides an equilibrium condition

between the two circuits high and lower
pressure.

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Fig. 3: control points on jet pump geometry.

Before initiating the optimal design process
on the fully 2D axisymmetric jet pump
geometry, we need to define the geometrical
shape variations by specifying a series of
parametric variables. Fig. 3, shows the
control (parameterization) points on the jet
pump geometry. These points can vary in
streamwise and radial directions. Here the
points determine the LP inlet are considered
as fixes. Previous experimental studies
carried out on the same jet pump geometry
indicated that the global performances are
insensitive to the modifications on the LP
section [6].

Fig. 4: Jet pump mesh.

4. Optimization procedure
The optimization method used in this study
based on coupling several numerical tools.
For CFD calculations we used Fine/Turbo
suite including grid generator (IGG), flow
solver (EURANUS) and post processing
software (CFVIEW) [3]. This package is
coupled with the optimization code EASY.
C++ program has been developed in order to
impose correct initial conditions for each
CFD simulation as well as the objective
function evaluation. The optimization
process can be described by the following
steps (see also Fig. 5):

The jet pump geometry definition and its

corresponding
mesh
are
generated
automatically using the optimization
variables provided stochastically by EASY.
These variables data are first read by a script,
once is executed by grid generator software
IGG[2], permits to create both the geometry
and its corresponding mesh. Note that,
optimization variables considered here
include geometrical constraints and the mass
flow rates on both inlets (HP and LP). These
variables vary in only limited intervals of
minimum and maximum values which are
obtained by considering the grid feasibility
as well as the flow physical mechanism in
the jet pump. Fig. 4 shows two types of
geometry meshing: the first (Fig 4-a) is
obtained when optimization variables are
substituted by their maximum values and the
second mesh is obtained using their
minimum values. In this process the grid
quality control is carried out simultaneously
for each optimization variables. The
generated is structured with 6 blocks and
about 9436 nodes.

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Population:
parameters,
pressure
constraints

represents the geometry

high pressure and low
flow
rate.
Whereby
can be imposed so that
x [x min ,x max ] . The first population
is chosen stochastically regarding to
constraints imposed for each variable.
Geometry: In this phase, the geometry
definition program has used the
optimisation variables to create a
script.
CFD: As first step, the script is
executed by IGG in order to generate
the grid mesh. After checking the grid
quality, the flow solver is run and
finally the results are treated in order
to evaluate the objective function.
Steady incompressible simulations are
performed by mean of Euranus solver
[1] using K- model with wall
functions for turbulence modelling.

ISBN: 978-960-6766-30-5

5th WSEAS Int. Conf. on FLUID MECHANICS (FLUIDS'08) Acapulco, Mexico, January 25-27, 2008

Optimization: the optimization is

carried out using an Evolutionary
Algorithm tool, namely Easy.
Stopping criterion: The procedure
ends when the number of generations
predefined is reached.

5. Objective function
In the present study only one objective
function have been used, in which the whole
of the objectives are integrated. This choice
is mainly due to the availability of the
computational means in multi-objectives.
Below, we define each objective separately
and the final objective function which we
sought to minimize is just the algebraic sum
of the following functions:
Function 1 :
F1 = Qobj ( QHP + QLP ) / Qobj the
minimum of this function can be obtained
by maximizing the total flow rate;
F2 = QHP QLP / Qobj
Function 2:
this function minimizes the difference
between the HP and LP flow rates;
Function 3: F3 = PElec Pel lim / Pel lim this
function minimizes the difference between the
electric power of the motor (Pellim) and the
hydraulic power (PElec) of the jet pump. This
function is evaluated by considering the HP
hydraulic
power:
Phyd = PElec Moteur HP .

Fig. 5: Optimization process.

HP

The pump efficiency depends on both the flow

rate and the specific speed:
HP = HP (nq, QHP)
With specific speed:

Easy 1.3 optimization software, is

considered as a generalization of the
most frequently used EA variants
(Genetic algorithms [7,8] and Evolution
Strategies [9]). Moreover, Easy 1.3 offers
the possibility of using ANNs as built-in
surrogate evaluation models, in order to
reduce the number of exact (CFD-based)
evaluations required for the same
solution quality [ 4,5 ].

nq = n

(n and nq [RPM] Q [m3/s] .)

The pump efficiency can be approximated by

(more details can be found in [10]) :

[( )

HP = 0.93 0.06 ln n q ln(50 ) 2

0.004[ln(Q HP ) ln(20 )]2

The notation symbols used for description of

the optimization method are the standard
ones used in Evolution Strategies. So
( , , ) denotes an EA with parents and
offspring, where the maximum allowed life
span for parent individuals is equal to
generation. In this study the three numbers
characterizing the Evolutionary Algorithms
(EA)
are
selected
such
as
( = 7 , = 2 , = 21 ) and in order to
accelerate the process of convergences, we
used the artificial neural networks (ANNs),
which reduce the number of evaluation tool
calls.

ISSN: 1790-5117

Q HP

Therefore the hydraulic power available at HP

inlet can be written as:
Phyd

HP

[( )

0.004[ln(Q HP ) ln(20)]2

Function

4:

F 4 = 0.03 + Z / 0.03

the

minimum of this function is reached when

the height of the free LP surface (Z) equals to
-0.03 m. In previous studies this value was
found to lead to the best skimming of the
swimming pool surface and provides an
equilibrium condition between the two circuits
HP and LP [6].

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= PElec Motor { 0.93 0.06 ln n q ln(50 ) 2

ISBN: 978-960-6766-30-5

5th WSEAS Int. Conf. on FLUID MECHANICS (FLUIDS'08) Acapulco, Mexico, January 25-27, 2008

Finally, the global objective function consist of

sub-functions summation and can be written as :
4

Fobj = i Fi in which i represent weighting

1

factors.

6. Results and discussions

As expected, visualizations based on

velocity vectors as well as simulated
streamlines in Fig 9 show that the
recirculation zone near the nozzle is
considerably reduced with respect to the
previous long geometry case. This can
improve the jet pump performances in term
of kinetic energy loss.
The obtained results are very important and
led to the maximum filtered water flow rate
with a predefined electrical power by
performing some low-cost modifications on
the jet pump geometry design.

In this section we present the main results

obtained by the optimization process of the
jet pump geometry.
The flow motion is governed by steady
incompressible time averaged Navier-Stokes
equations in the Cartesian coordinate system.
The turbulence has been parameterized by
using K- model with wall functions. On the
solid surface, the no-slip wall boundary
conditions where used and static pressure at
the domain exit. At both domain inlets a
velocity value, corresponding to the desired
flow rate, is specified.

4
3.5

OBJ_function_

3
2.5
2
1.5
1

Fig.6 shows the convergence of the

optimization process. This later has been
stopped before achieving total convergence
criterion since the minimized objective
function value is achieved.
The obtained results met very well with our
objectives. Indeed, by performing some
modifications on the jet pump geometry the
filtered flow rate is considerably increased
compared to what obtained with the initial
geometry. The flow rate from LP inlet is
found to be similar to that of HP inlet.
Nevertheless, the visualization of velocity
vectors in Fig. 7 highlighted the presence of
small and large recirculation zones far and
near the nozzle exit respectively. This is
confirmed by the simulated streamlines on
the same figure. The large recirculation at
the exit of the nozzle is found to generate an
important kinetic energy loss (not shown
here).

0.5
0
0

40

60
80
Evaluations

100

120

Fig. 6: Convergence of the optimization.

In order to solve this problem of

recirculation and energy loss, we have
decided to cut the nozzle before the
recirculation zone and new optimization
procedure have been conducted on this new
geometry. Fig. 8 presents the new geometry
to be optimized. Note that, only part colored
in red is concerned by the optimization
process.

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20

Fig 7: Visualization of velocity vectors.

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5th WSEAS Int. Conf. on FLUID MECHANICS (FLUIDS'08) Acapulco, Mexico, January 25-27, 2008

Fig 8: Geometry and grid of jet pump.

conditions, reduce considerably

the jet
pump performances. In order to solve this
problem, we have decided to reduce the
nozzle length by cutting it just before the
zone of recirculation, and new optimization
process has been conducted considering this
new geometry. As expected, our results
show that with this geometry of short nozzle,
the recirculation zone is reduced in
maximum. Despite this solution, the kinetic
energy loss seems to persist in this system.
Our suggestion in the future is to add a
trumpet duct to the nozzle exit which may
lead to a good homogenization of the flow. It
is worth noting that in the present study we
minimized only one objective function,
which mainly includes four sub-functions. It
is then crucial to carry out an optimization
study with multi objectives function.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to knowledge R.
CALARD, F. DEBOOS, M. L. DEPAUX,
M. FRINGANT and S. KOCH-MATHIAN
for their kind collaboration.
References:

Fig. 9: Visualization of velocity vectors on

the short geometry.

7 Conclusions
The present study deals with an optimal
design process of jet pomp geometry. Our
objective is to reduce pumping costs in term
of electric energy by making some changes
to the initial geometry shape. For this
purpose, an optimisation tool EASY based
on evolutionary algorithm is coupled with
computational fluid dynamics software
Fine/Turbo in order to evaluate the jet
pump performances.
The first obtained results met very well with
our objectives. Indeed, by performing some
modifications on the jet pump geometry the
filtered flow rate is considerably increased
compared to what obtained with the initial
geometry at same operating conditions.
Nevertheless, the flow analysis inside the
device (nozzle) revealed the presence of
large recirculation zone near the nozzle exit
which can, under certain operating

ISSN: 1790-5117

[1] Fine Turbo, User manual, Numeca

international 2003, Belgique.
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