Multicondition Optimization and Experimental Measurements of a Double-Blade Centrifugal Pump Impeller

Abstract

In order to improve internal unsteady flow in a double-blade centrifugal pump (DBCP), this study used major geometric parameters of the original design as the initial values, heads at three conditions (i.e., 80% design flow rate, 100% design flow rate, and 120% design flow rate) as the constraints conditions, and the maximum of weighted average efficiency at the three conditions as the objective function. An adaptive simulated annealing algorithm was selected to solve the energy performance calculation model and the supertransitive approximation method was applied to fix optimal weight factors of individual objectives. On the basis of hydraulic performance optimization, three-condition automatic computational fluid dynamics (CFD) optimization of impeller meridional plane for the DBCP was realized by means of Isight software integrated Pro/E, Gambit, and Fluent software. The shroud arc radii R and R, shroud angle T, hub arc radius R, and hub angle T on the meridional plane were selected as the design variables and the maximum of weighted average hydraulic efficiency at the three conditions was chosen as the objective function. Performance characteristic test and particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements of internal flow in the DBCP were conducted. Performance characteristic test results show that the weighted average efficiency of the impeller after the three-condition optimization has increased by 1.46% than that of original design. PIV measurements results show that vortex or recirculation phenomena in the impeller are distinctly improved under the three conditions.

Cavitation shedding dynamics around a hydrofoil simulated using a filter-based density corrected model

“…Therefore, a thorough understanding of the unsteady cavitation in propellers is urgently needed particularly when the cavity is followed by a regular shedding of the cloud cavitation. Additionally, the shedding cavities are often related to the risk of erosions [3] and head-drop in pumps [4]. Thus, cavitation becomes a research hotspot recently, and many researchers have devoted to investigate cavity's occurrence, breakup, shedding, collapse and its influence factor [5,6].…”

Multi-objective optimization of a high efficiency and suction performance for mixed-flow pump impeller

“…Recently, many kinds of research have been investigated to maximize or minimize the objective functions using three-dimensional steady and unsteady computational fluid dynamics with optimization technique for various turbo-machinery applications (Ezhilsabareesh, Rhee, & Samad, 2017;Gao, Wang, Pang, & Cao, 2016;Jeong & Kim, 2018). The common numerical optimization in pumps suppressed the cavitation phenomenon by controlling main rotating components, especially at the meridional plane and blade angles (Liu et al, 2013;Visser, Dijkers, de Woerd, & H, 2000). Moreover, pump head and efficiency were also sensitive to shape parameters (Tao, Xiao, & Wang, 2018;Zhu, Tao, & Xiao, 2019).…”

Anti-Cavitation Design of the Symmetric Leading-Edge Shape of Mixed-Flow Pump Impeller Blades

“…Optimization can be used to improve the performance of pumps. The most common optimization works in pumps and other hydraulic turbomachinery improved the efficiency by adjusting impeller geometry, including blade angles and meridional shape parameters [15][16][17]. When considering the optimization of cavitation performance, geometry control and searching were also effective.…”