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Investigation of the impact of splitter blades on a low specific speed pump for fluid-induced vibration

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Abstract

Low specific speed centrifugal pumps are widely applied in the chemical industry and agricultural irrigation fields. The vibration characteristics are of great importance for centrifugal pumps. Apart from rotor installation, fluid-induced vibrations caused by internal flow also play an important role in the vibration performance, and special attention should be paid to low specific speed centrifugal pumps for long and narrow meridian flow channels where secondary flows are easy to generate. In this paper, splitter blades were studied for decreasing the pressure and radial force fluctuations of a low specific speed centrifugal pump at the design point, both numerically and experimentally. Numerical simulations based on the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) turbulent model were performed for fluid-field analysis. The steady state and unsteady simulations were computed based on ANSYS Fluent. Here, the circumferential location, leading edge location, and the deflection angle of the splitter blades were considered to suppress the secondary flow and to reduce vibration. The experiments show the effectiveness of splitter blades for decreasing fluid-induced vibrations.

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Abbreviations

ns :

Specific speed

n:

Rotating speed (rpm)

Q:

Volume flow rate (m3/s)

H:

Pump head (m)

D2 :

Impeller outlet diameter (mm)

D3 :

Volute spiral inlet diameter (mm)

R:

Ratio of cutwater gap (D3/D2)

Vø :

Absolute circumferential component (m/s)

U2 :

Peripheral speed at impeller outlet (rpm)

Z1 :

Number of blades

Z2 :

Number of splitter blades

b2 :

I mpeller outlet width (mm)

b3 :

Volute spiral inlet width (mm)

θst :

Stacking angle (°)

ρ :

Fluid density (kg/m3)

γ :

Circumferential location of splitter blades

ϕ :

Leading edge location of splitter blades

α :

Deflection angle of the splitter blades

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Acknowledgments

The work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51706198 and No.51839010) and Lab of Advanced Space Propulsion, No: LabASP-2018-01. And the computational resource was supported by HPC Center of ZJU (Zhoushan Campus).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Guitao Zeng, Qianqian Li, Peng Wu, Bo Qian, Shiyang Li & Dazhuan Wu

  2. Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Zhoushan, 316021, China

    Bin Huang

  3. The State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power Transmission and Control, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Dazhuan Wu

Authors
  1. Guitao Zeng
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  2. Qianqian Li
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  3. Peng Wu
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  4. Bo Qian
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  5. Bin Huang
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  6. Shiyang Li
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  7. Dazhuan Wu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Peng Wu or Bin Huang.

Additional information

Recommended by Editor Yang Na

Guiao Zeng is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Institute of Process Equipment, College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University. He received his B.S. degree in 2018 from Zhejiang University. His research interests include signal, vibration, cavitation, fluid mechanism, fluid machinery design and optimization.

Peng Wu is currently an Associate Professor in the Institute of Process Equipment of Zhejiang University (China). He obtained his B.Sc. degree in 2008 and his Ph.D. in 2013 from Zhejiang Univer-sity (China). His major research interests include optimal design, transient flow and vibration in fluid machinery.

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Zeng, G., Li, Q., Wu, P. et al. Investigation of the impact of splitter blades on a low specific speed pump for fluid-induced vibration. J Mech Sci Technol 34, 2883–2893 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-020-0620-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-020-0620-7

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