Effects of the hydrofoil blade on the pressure pulsation and jet‐wake flow in a centrifugal pump

• Main Authors: Yang Zhang, Bo Gao, Anthony Akurugo Alubokin, Guoping Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2021-04-01
• Series: Energy Science & Engineering
• Subjects: centrifugal pump; hydrofoil blade design; jet‐wake flow; pressure pulsation
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1002/ese3.865

Abstract A hydrofoil blade design (HBD) is proposed to suppress the unsteady pressure pulsations in a centrifugal pump. Numerical simulation is carried out using the SST k‐ω model to obtain the unsteady flow field in the pump both with HBD and the conventional blade design (CBD). The pressure pulsations with the two types of blade profiles are compared at the nominal flow rate, whereas the jet‐wake flow patterns and vortex structures are analyzed to clarify the effect of the HBD on the flow field. The pressure pulsation amplitudes at the blade frequency (fBPF) are significantly reduced with the HBD, especially near the volute tongue, with a reduction of 72%. It is evident that HBD can effectively suppress the pressure pulsation. It is for these reasons that the relative velocities in the jet region at the impeller outlet are reduced, and the velocity gradients between the pressure and suction side are decreased, which contributes to improving the flow uniformity at the impeller outlet. Besides, the vorticities at the impeller outlet are reduced, and the high energy vortices shedding from the blade trailing edge are restrained. The combined effects of the uniform flow field and low vorticities contribute to the reduction of pressure amplitude with the HBD. The findings would serve as a reference for the pump designs with low noise and vibration.