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DOI: 10.3901/CJME.2010.**.***, available online at www.cjmenet.com; www.cjmenet.com.cn
Effects of Blade Number on Characteristics of Centrifugal Pumps
Abstract: The blade number of impeller is an important design parameter of pumps, which affects the characteristics of pump heavily.
At present, the investigation focuses mostly on the performance characteristics of axis flow pumps, the influence of blade number on
inner flow filed and characteristics of centrifugal pump has not been understood completely. Therefore, the methods of numerical
simulation and experimental verification are used to investigate the effects of blade number on flow field and characteristics of a
centrifugal pump. The model pump has a design specific speed of 92.7 and an impeller with 5 blades. The blade number is varied to 4, 6,
7 with the casing and other geometric parameters keep constant. The inner flow fields and characteristics of the centrifugal pumps with
different blade number are simulated and predicted in noncavitation and caviation conditions by using commercial code FLUENT. The
impellers with different blade number are made by using rapid prototyping, and their characteristics are tested in an open loop. The
comparison between prediction values and experimental results indicates that the prediction results are satisfied. The maximum
discrepancy of prediction results for head, efficiency and required net positive suction head are 4.83%, 3.9% and 0.36 m, respectively.
The flow analysis displays that blade number change has an important effect on the area of low pressure region behind the blade inlet
and jetwake structure in impellers. With the increase of blade number, the head of the model pumps increases too, the variable
regulation of efficiency and cavitation characteristics are complicated, but there are optimum values of blade number for each one. The
research results are helpful for hydraulic design of centrifugal pump.
The pump has a special speed of 92.7 and an impeller residuals is 10 –5 .
with 5 blades was researched. Experiment and geometry
parameters under the design condition were shown in Table 3.1 Boundary conditions
1. In order to investigate the effect of blade number on the Velocity inlet was selected as inlet boundary condition.
inner flow field and characteristics of the model pump, 4 Assume that inlet velocity uin is uniform at axis direction
impellers with the blade number from 4 to 7 were made of and its value equals to ratio of flow rate and inlet area.
engineering plastics by rapid prototyping.
4 Q
u in = , (1)
Table 1. Parameters of research model 3.14 ´ Din 2
Specific
Flow Head Rotation speed Efficiency
speed where Q is the flow rate, Din is the pump inlet diameter.
Q/ (m 3 • h –1 ) H/ m n/(r • min –1 ) η/ %
ns
The turbulent condition at pump inlet can be described
50 32 2 900 92.7 79.3
by turbulent kinetic energy kin and turbulent dissipation rate
Blade Impeller Outlet Blade
Outlet width εin, they can be estimated by the following formula:
number diameter angle number
b2/ m
Z D2/ m β2/(°) Z
5 0.168 0.01 33 5 kin = 0.005uin
2
, (2)
Z= 4 Z= 5
Fig. 1. 3D model and wall grid of the impeller
and volute (Z= 5)
3 Numerical Simulation and Performance
Prediction under Noncavitation Condition
FLUENT was used to simulate the inner flow field under
noncavitation condition. The standard kε turbulence
Z= 6 Z= 7
model and SIMPLEC algorithm are applied to solve the
RANS equations. The simulation is steady and moving Fig. 2. Static pressure distributions at midspan
for different impellers (kPa)
reference frame is applied to take into account the
impellervolute interaction. Convergence precision of
From Fig. 2, it can be seen clearly that for different blade
CHINESE JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING ·3·
Jet
4 Numerical Simulation of Cavitation Flow
and Cavitation Characteristics Prediction
Z=4 Z=5
1
4.1 Numerical simulation of cavitation flow
The full cavitation model advanced by SINGHAL, et
2 [14]
al , and mixture multiphase model were applied to
simulate the cavitation flow in model pump. The full
cavitation model considers the influence of phase change,
bubble dynamics, pressure fluctuation of turbulence and
3 the noncondensing gas in cavitition flow [15] . The standard
kε turbulence model was chosen to get the control
equation closed down, the k and ε equations are the same to
Z=6 Z=7 single phase flow in the formal, but the variables in the
Fig. 3. Relative velocity distributions at front shroud equation are the average value of mixture fluid.
·2· LIU Houlin, et al: Effects of Blade Number on Characteristics of Centrifugal Pumps
Velocity inlet and pressureoutlet are set as boundary in different channels around the impeller is non axis
conditions; the inlet velocity is calculated by using Eq. (1), symmetric, which may be arose from the asymmetry of
the cavitation condition of centrifugal pumps is adjusted by interior flied of the model pump because of the coupling
changing the output pressure. Wall boundary condition is between impeller and volute [16] .
the same with noncavitation simulation. In order to 4.3 Cavitation characteristics prediction of pumps
improve the rapidity of convergence and stability of The net positive suction head(NPSH) of centrifugal
calculation, the calculation results of single phase flow are pump can be obtained by the following equation:
initialed for cavitation flow. The volume fraction of vapour
in original field of cavitation flow is assumed to be zero. pin - p v
H NPS = , (8)
rg
4.2 Volume fraction of vapour on the midspan
of impeller where pin is the total pressure of impeller inlet, pv is the
With the depravation of the cavitation condition, the vapour pressure of fluid at the work temperature.
pressure distributions on the impeller flow passage changes The head of centrifugal pump can be obtained by Eq. (4).
obviously due to the generation and development of bubble. The prediction curve of cavitation characteristics is
Fig. 4 shows the volume fraction of vapour on middle obtained by calculating the head and net positive suction
section of impellers with different blade number when the head of centrifugal pump under different outlet pressure.
head of model pump decrease 3% caused by cavitation. The NPSHR is determined from NPSH value for which
The symbol Ф represents volume fraction of vapour. When mean pump head decreased 3%, according to the
Ф=0, there is no vapour phase in volume, when Ф=1, the specification of America hydraulic standard association.
volume is filled of vapour phase. The predicted curves of cavitation characteristics with
different blade number under design condition are shown
in Fig. 5.
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
36
Z=7
34 Z=6
z=5
32 Z=4
H / m
30
28
26
From Fig. 5, it can be known that the change regular of
head keeps constant at first and then descends with the
decrease of NPSH. The head of model pump grows with
the increase of blade number of impeller. When the blade
Z= 6, HNPS = 4.3 m Z=7, HNPS = 4.82 m
number is 7; the head of model pump obtains the maximum
Fig. 4. Volume fraction on midspan of impellers value. The NPSHR of model pump with blade number
from 4 to 7 are 3.87 m, 3.58 m, 4.30 m, and 4.82 m,
As shown in Fig. 4, the volume distribution of vapour on respectively, which are obtained by using interpolation
midspan of impellers is mostly nearby the suction side of method basing on Fig. 5.
blade in the inlet, and extends along the streamline
direction with the increase of blade number. The more 5 Experimental Verification
blade number in the impeller, the overflowing area of flow
passage decreases, the more crowding cut effect The characteristics of the model pump with different
phenomenon occurrences, flow passage was clogged blade number were tested in Jiangsu University, China, in
evidently. So the cavitation characteristics of the model order to examine the predicted results calculated by using
pump became worse, which is concordant with the the CFD numerical simulation methods. The experiments
theoretical analysis. were conducted in an open test loop, which consists of a
In addition, the volume fraction distributions of vapour
CHINESE JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING ·5·
reservoir open to air, a suction valve, a discharge pipe and decreases and increases at last. The NPSHR decreases at
a discharge valve. The pump was driven by a motor. The first then increases. When blade number is 7, the head and
flow rate was adjusted with the discharge valve and the efficiency of model pump obtains the maximum value,
measured by using an electromagnetic flow meter. The while the blade number is 5 for cavitation characteristic,
cavitation condition was adjusted by turning down the inlet which indicate that there is an optimum blade number
valve to increase the partial loss. The pressure was value for the efficiency and NPSHR of a centrifugal pump,
measured at two locations, the suction and discharge of the but the optimum value is different. The maximum
tested pump by vacuum gauge and pressure gauge. The discrepancies of prediction results for head, efficiency,
experimental set for pump is shown in Fig. 6. The NPSHR are 4.83%, 3.9%, and 0.36 m, respectively.
experimental impellers with different blade number were Therefore the research above is reliable.
made of engineering plastics by using rapid prototyping, as
50 78
shown in Fig. 7. Efficiency experimental data
48 77
Efficiency CFD results
h /%
46 76
44 75
42 74
Effeciency
Pressure Electromagnetic 73
gauge Vacuum 40
gauge flow meter 72
H/m
Discharge valve 38
71
Motor Inlet valve 36
Head experimental data 70
34
Head
32 Head CFD results
30
Pump 5.5
28
NPSHR m
5.0
26
4.5
24
22 NPSHR experimental data 4.0
NPSHR CFD results 3.5
20
4 5 6 7
Fig. 6. Experimental set for pump
Blade number Z
Fig. 8. Comparison between experiment data
and CFD results
6 Conclusions
Z=4 Z=5 Z=6 Z=7
Fig. 7. Experiment impellers with different blade number The effects of blade number on inner flow and
characteristics of centrifugal pump were researched by
The test process conforms to the GB3216 pump using the methods of numerical simulation and
experiment standard completely, and the Head curve, experimental verification. The main research conclusions
efficiency curve and NPSHR curve at different flow are below.
condition can be obtained. The experimental data of model (1) With the increase of the blade number, the limitation
pumps with different blade number under design condition between blade and flow stream gets more obvious, the
are shown in Table 3. phenomenon of “jet and wake” in impeller did become
unobvious,which is prominent in the flow channel against
Table 3. Experimental values tongue of volute. It can be concluded that the increase of
Blade number Head Efficiency NPSHR blade number is helpful to reduce the mixture loss of “jet”
Z H / m η / % HRNPS/ m and “wake” in centrifugal pump.
4 27.51 74.07 4.04 (2) The uniformity distributions of vapour in impeller
5 30.38 75.63 3.68 channel became obvious with the increase of blade number.
6 30.54 74.20 4.66
The clog phenomenon became obvious in flow passage of
7 32.91 77.45 4.95
impeller with the more blade number. When the head of
centrifugal pumps decreases 3%, the cavitation
The experimental results and predicted results of characteristics decrease evidently.
characteristics of model pumps with different blade number (3) With the increase of blade number, the head of
were compared in Fig. 8. From Fig. 8, it can be known that centrifugal pump grows all the time, the change regulations
with the increase of blade number the tendency of of efficiency and NPSHR are complex, but there is an
prediction results agrees well with the experimental values. optimum value for the best efficiency and cavitation
The head of model pump grows with the increase of blade characteristics, the optimum blade number of the model
number, and the increase amplitude of head is unequal pump in this paper for efficiency is 7, 5 blades secondly
sized. The efficiency of the pump grows at first, then
·2· LIU Houlin, et al: Effects of Blade Number on Characteristics of Centrifugal Pumps