Journal of Thermal Science Vol.22, No.

6 (2013) 586591

DOI: 10.1007/s11630-013-0666-2 Article ID: 1003-2169(2013)06-0586-06

Research on Performance of Centrifugal Pump with Different-type Open Im-

peller

CUI Baoling*, CHEN Desheng, WANG Canfei, ZHU Zuchao, JIN Yingzi, JIN Yuzhen
The Province Key Laboratory of Fluid Transmission Technology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018,
China

Science Press and Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, CAS and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

To investigate the influence of impeller type on the performance and inner flow of centrifugal pump, the numeri-
cal simulation and experimental research were carried out on the same centrifugal pump with straight-blade and
curved-blade open impeller. Based on SIMPLEC algorithm, time-averaged N-S equation and the standard k-
turbulence model, the numerical results are obtained. The pressure distribution in the different type impellers is
uniform, while the low pressure area in straight-blade inlet is larger. The vortexes in the passage of impeller exist
in both cases. Relative to curved-blade impeller, there are larger vortexes in most of the flow passages except the
passage near the tongue in straight-blade impeller. Also some small backflow regions are found at the blade inlet
of two impellers. The characteristic curves achieved by numerical simulation basically agree with those by
experiment, and straight-blade open impeller centrifugal pump has a better hydraulic performance.

Keywords: open impeller; centrifugal pump; numerical simulation; experiment

Introduction much larger blade angle at impeller inlet. Young-Do Choi

The low-specific-speed centrifugal pumps with open
impeller are widely used in industries nowadays. The
centrifugal pump with open impeller mainly transports
the medium with solid or high viscosity due to the clear-
ance between impeller and cover. At present, some re-
searches had been done on the centrifugal pump with the
open impeller. Harada[1] had studied and analyzed the
performance of centrifugal pump with the closed impel-
ler and open impeller. Luo Xianwu et al. [2] studied the
effect of impeller inlet geometry on performance im-
provement for a boiler feed pump. Five impellers were
investigated by extending the blade leading edge or ap-
plying much larger blade angle at impeller inlet. It is
found that performance improvement have been achieved
by both extending the blade leading edge and applying
et al. [3] investigated the internal flow characteristics and
its influence on the performance of a very low specific
speed centrifugal pump. The results show that large
reverse flow at the semi-open impeller outlet decreases
absolute tangential velocity considerably which in turn
decreases the pumping head. Cui Baoling et al. [4] studied
the open impeller centrifugal pump with the inducer by
using the CFD software Fluent. The Reynolds averaged
N-S equations and k- turbulence model were adopted
during the numerical simulation, and the pressure distri-
bution and internal flow in the impeller, inducer and vo-
lute were analyzed. Sun Sun et al. [5] measured and ana-
lyzed the internal flow of the semi-open impeller cen-
trifugal pump at three flow rates (small flow rate, design
flow rate and large flow rate) by PIV flow measure-
ment technology. The internal flow condition was re-

Received: July 2013 CUI Baoling : Professor

This investigation was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China granted No. 51276172, No. 50976105
www.springerlink.com
CUI Baoling et al. Research on Performance of Centrifugal Pump with Different-type Open Impeller 587

vealed through measurement points at different positions.

Although, most of the scholars had done some studies on
the internal flow of open impeller centrifugal pump, few
were on the low-specific-speed centrifugal pump. There-
fore, to analyze the influence of impeller type on the
performance and inner flow in low-specific-speed cen-
trifugal pump, the numerical simulation and experiment
are carried out on the pump with straight-blade and
curved-blade open impeller by software Fluent.
Fig.2 The three dimensional model of pump
Computational model
The numerical grids are obtained by Gambit. Because
Geometrical model the computational domains are complex, especially in-
In the paper, the low-specific-speed centrifugal pump ducer, impeller and volute, the unstructured grids which
with straight-blade and curved-blade open impeller is have strong adaptability are adopted. The numerical grids
studied and analyzed. The design parameters of the of impeller are shown in Fig.3.
model pump are flow rate Q = 3m3/h, head H = 50m, and
the rotating speed n = 2900r/min. The two impellers have
8 blades and the tip clearance is 1mm. The main geomet-
rical parameters are shown in Table 1. b1 and b2 are blade
inlet and outlet width respectively, 1 and 2 are blade
inlet and outlet angle respectively, D1 and D2 are impeller
inlet and outlet diameter respectively, and Z is blade
number. The impeller structures are shown in Fig.1.
Table 1 The main geometrical parameters of the impellers
Impeller Type Straight blade Curved blade
b1/mm 15 15 Fig.3 Computational grids
b2/mm 5 5
1/() 90 20 Numerical model and boundary condition
2/() 90 40 Based on the SIMPLEC algorithm which couples the
D1/mm 45 45 pressure and velocity, the standard k- turbulence model
D2/mm 188 188 and uncoupled implicit scheme are adopted during the
Z 8 8 process of computation. The specific boundary condi-
tions are as follows, velocity inlet is given as the inlet
boundary condition, and the axial velocity is determined
by the law of mass conservation and the assumption of
zero-entry swirl, the outflow is given as the outlet
boundary condition. Suppose the flow at the outlet is
fully developed, no-slip boundary condition is adopted
for the solid wall. The standard wall function is adopted
for the domains near the wall.

Numerical result analysis

Fig.1 The impeller structures
Numerical calculation method
Computational grids
The computational domain is the whole flow field in-
cluding the extension of inlet and outlet, the inducer, im-
peller passages, volute passage and the chamber between
impeller and volute. The structures are shown in Fig.2.
Pressure and streamline analysis on the mid-section
To investigate the inner flow in the centrifugal pump
with different types of impeller, the pressure and velocity
on mid-section in two impellers are analyzed in the paper.
The static pressure distributions on the mid-section are
shown in Fig.4. From Fig.4, it can be seen that the static
pressure distributions in two impellers are uniform. The
pressure at the inlet is minimal, and it may easy to bring