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Study of Unforced Unsteadiness in Centrifugal Pump at Partial Flow Rates

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Abstract

In order to explore the unforced unsteadiness of centrifugal pumps, a 2-D frequency domain imaging display technology was used to study the development of these unsteady flow structures at partial flow conditions. The results showed that, the unsteady flow field was not only affected by rotor and stator interaction, but also appeared an unforced unsteadiness with fundamental frequency of St≈0.23 around the impeller throat area. Moreover, as the flow rates decreased, this unsteady flow structure gradually weakened and disappeared. When the flow rate was reduced to 0.6 times of design flow rate, another two unforced unsteady flow structures with characteristic frequencies of St≈0.0714 and St≈0.12 began to appear in the same area. Therefore, with the operating condition smaller than design flow rate, the internal flow became more and more complex. In addition to the forced unsteadiness, the unforced unsteadiness which is not connected with the blade passage frequency became more and more obvious.

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Abbreviations

A n :

amplitude magnitude

b 2 :

outlet width of impeller/mm

\(C_{p_i}\) :

instantaneous pressure coefficient at grid node i

D :

inlet diameter of impeller/mm

D 2 :

diameter of impeller/mm

f :

frequency/Hz

f BPF :

blade passing frequency/Hz

fn :

discrete peak frequency/Hz

f R :

rotating frequency/Hz

fTn :

nonlinear frequency

H :

head/m

n 0 :

rotating speed/r•min−1

n s :

specific speed

P i :

pressure at grid node i/Pa

P irms :

root mean square of the pressure grid node i/Pa

Q :

flow rate/m3•h−1

Q DES :

design flow rate/kg•s−1

St :

Strouhal number

St BPF :

Strouhal number corresponding to fBPF

St R :

Strouhal number corresponding to fR

t :

total sampling time

Δt :

sampling time interval

u :

outlet circumference velocity of impeller/m•s−1

u 2 :

outlet circumference velocity of impeller/m•s−1

Z :

number of blades

ρ :

fluid density/kg•m−3

φ :

flow coefficient

ψ :

head coefficient

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51976125), Open Research Subject of Key Laboratory of Fluid and Power Machinery (Xihua University), Ministry of Education (Grant number zj2015-024) and Natural Science Fund of Shanghai (Grant No.19ZR1425900).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, China

    Jun Yang, Tian Xie & Jun Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Fluid and Power Machinery (Xihua University), Ministry of Education, Chengdu, 610039, China

    Jun Yang

  3. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow and Heat Transfer in Power Engineering, Shanghai, 200093, China

    Jun Yang

  4. School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Xiaohua Liu

  5. Research Center of Fluid Machinery Engineering and Technology, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    Qiaorui Si

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  1. Jun Yang
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  2. Tian Xie
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  3. Xiaohua Liu
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  4. Qiaorui Si
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  5. Jun Liu
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Correspondence to Qiaorui Si.

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Yang, J., Xie, T., Liu, X. et al. Study of Unforced Unsteadiness in Centrifugal Pump at Partial Flow Rates. J. Therm. Sci. 30, 88–99 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-019-1241-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-019-1241-2

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