Hydrodynamic Design System for Pumps Based on 3-D CAD, CFD, and Inverse Design Method

Abstract

A computer-aided design system has been developed for hydraulic parts of pumps including impellers, bowl diffusers, volutes, and vaned return channels. The key technologies include three-dimensional (3-D) CAD modeling, automatic grid generation, CFD analysis, and a 3-D inverse design method. The design system is directly connected to a rapid prototyping production system and a flexible manufacturing system composed of a group of DNC machines. The use of this novel design system leads to a drastic reduction of the development time of pumps having high performance, high reliability, and innovative design concepts. The system structure and the design process of “Blade Design System” and “Channel Design System” are presented. Then the design examples are presented briefly based on the previous publications, which included a centrifugal impeller with suppressed secondary flows, a bowl diffuser with suppressed corner separation, a vaned return channel of a multistage pump, and a volute casing. The results of experimental validation, including flow fields measurements, were also presented and discussed briefly.

Influence of Splitter Blades on the Flow Field of a Centrifugal Pump: Test-Analysis Comparison

“…Several authors have suggested to combine different computational tools in order to design and analyze turbomachineries [1][2][3][4][5]. Despite the great progress of the turbomachinery design and performance analysis produced by power computer and numerical methods accuracy, the effect of splitter blades on pump performance has not been totally understood.…”

Numerical Modelization of the Flow in Centrifugal Pump: VoluteInfluence in Velocity and Pressure Fields

“…Recently, several authors (Paßrucker and Van den Braembussche [1]; Cravero [2]; Sloteman et al [3]; Goto et al [4]) have proposed integral procedures to design and analyze turbomachines combining different computational tools. Mostly, these procedures combine a one-dimensional (1D) performance analysis method with a quasi-threedimensional (Q-3D) method to verify the optimum pump geometry.…”

Optimization Design of a Double-Channel Pump by Means of Orthogonal Test, CFD, and Experimental Analysis

“…As proved in other studies [2][3][4][5][6][7], computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can give a lot of potentially very useful information for improving the fluid dynamic design of pumps. However, in many cases, it does not directly state what kind of modification should be made to improve such hydrodynamic performance.…”