A numerical investigation of cryogenic cavitation flow in LNG submerged pump

Abstract

The cryogenic centrifugal submersible pump is one of the core equipment of the technology and serves to pressurize and transport the fluid with the centrifugal force generated from the impeller by rotation. Due to the structural characteristics of the working fluid and multi-stage, problems such as cavitation and axial thrust negatively affect the life, noise, vibration, and performance of the pump, so it must be considered. For this reason, this research aimed to investigate a low-pressure LNG pump for an LNG fuel supply system with a general specific speed. The main components were designed based on the previous studies and CFturbo. The numerical analysis method was established and the performance prediction was conducted using commercial CFD packages. The three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations were discretized to analyze the internal flow field. First, the reliability of the turbulence model was proved through Hord’s experiment in the 0.357-inch ogive. Second, the steady and unsteady simulations were conducted between the single-passage and full-passage conditions in the inducer. Third, the corresponding analysis was investigated to identify problems with existing model features and find improvement directions.

Using Modern Mechanical Design Methods for Determining the Main Characteristics of a Cryogenic Centrifugal Pump

“…The works [4][5][6][7][8] are devoted to research the flow of liquid nitrogen or other cryogenic media, as well as to the study of the processes occurring in cryogenic superchargers. However, they do not fully reveal the problems of designing and improving the efficiency of this type of pump.…”

“…Jun-Won Suh et al [5] optimized model based on the genetic algorithm of MATLAB was applied with different parameters of impeller that were taken as optimization variables. A numerical simulation on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes combined with the k-ε realizable turbulence model accounts for three-dimensional unsteady flows was applied for getting the performances.…”