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Investigation of performances and flow characteristics of two bi-directional pumps with different airfoil blades

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Abstract

Today, the most commonly used bi-directional airfoil in hydraulic machinery is the S-shaped airfoil (SA). A new bi-directional airfoil, obtained by lowering the bent airfoil camber and thickening the bone line bi-directionally, is proposed. Two bi-directional axial flow pumps, with the SA blades and the arc airfoil (AA) blades, respectively, were designed to verify the applicability of this airfoil. By comparing the hydraulic performances of the two pumps obtained from the experiments, and the cavitation performance and flow field of the two pumps obtained from numerical simulations, it was found that AA blades can improve both the hydraulic and cavitation performances under a low flow rate and near the best efficiency flow point (BEP), whether in forward or reverse operation for the bi-directional axial-flow pump. Furthermore, the hydraulic performance of the AA blade pump declines sharply in a large flow rate compared to that of the SA blade pump. The location and composition of the inhomogeneous flows inside the impellers of the two pumps are similar. However, the SA blades work on fluid, mainly at the front half of the blades, which is a distinctive feature from the AA blades and may be a universal phenomenon in all SA-type blades.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    PengFei Ma & HaiFeng Wang

  2. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Jun Wang

Authors
  1. PengFei Ma
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  2. Jun Wang
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  3. HaiFeng Wang
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Correspondence to PengFei Ma.

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Ma, P., Wang, J. & Wang, H. Investigation of performances and flow characteristics of two bi-directional pumps with different airfoil blades. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 61, 1588–1599 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-017-9195-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-017-9195-x

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