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Numerical investigations on performance improvement mechanism of a high-power vertical centrifugal pump with special emphasis on hydraulic component matching

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance improvement mechanism of a high power vertical centrifugal pump by using numerical calculations. Therefore, a comparative study of energy losses and internal flow characteristics in the original and optimized models was carried out with special attention to the hydraulic component matching. The optimized model (model B) was obtained by optimizing the vaned diffuser and volute based on the original model (model A), mainly the diffuser inlet diameter, diffuser inlet vane angle, volute channel inlet width and volute throat area were changed. Firstly, the comparative results on performance and energy losses of two models showed that the efficiency and head of model B was significantly increased under design and part-load conditions. It is mainly due to the dramatic reduction of energy loss PL in the diffuser and volute. Then, the comparisons of PL and flow patterns in the vaned diffuser showed that the matching optimization between the model B impeller outlet flow angle and diffuser inlet vane angle resulted in a better flow pattern in both the circumferential and axial directions of the diffuser, which leads to the PL3 reduction. The meridian velocity Vm of model B was significantly increased at diffuser inlet regions and resulted in improvements of flow patterns at diffuser middle and outlet regions as well as pressure expansion capacity. Finally, the comparisons of PL and flow characteristics in the volute showed that the turbulence loss reduction in the model B volute was due to the flow pattern improvement at diffuser outlet regions which provided better flow conditions at volute inlet regions. The matching optimization between the diffuser and volute significantly reduced the turbulence loss in volute sections 1–4 and enhanced the pressure expansion capacity in sections 8–10.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Jiangsu Provincial Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (Grant No. BK20211547), the Technological Innovation Team Project in Colleges and Universities of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. SKJ (2021)-1) the Open Research Subject of Key Laboratory of Fluid Machinery and Engineering (Xihua University) of Sichuan Province (Grant No. LTDL-2022007) and the Graduate Research and Innovation Projects of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. KYCX23_3701).

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Gang Yang, Xi Shen, De-sheng Zhang, Wen-hua Luo, Jia Meng & Xu-tao Zhao

  2. Key Laboratory of Fluid Machinery and Engineering, Xihua University, Chengdu, 610039, China

    Xi Shen

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  1. Gang Yang
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  2. Xi Shen
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  3. De-sheng Zhang
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  4. Wen-hua Luo
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  5. Jia Meng
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  6. Xu-tao Zhao
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Correspondence to De-sheng Zhang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. De-sheng Zhang is an editorial board member for the Journal of Hydrodynamics and was not involved in the editorial review, or the decision to publish this article. All authors declare that there are no other competing interests.

Ethical approval: This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51979125).

Biography: Gang Yang (1997-), Male, Ph. D. Candidate

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Yang, G., Shen, X., Zhang, Ds. et al. Numerical investigations on performance improvement mechanism of a high-power vertical centrifugal pump with special emphasis on hydraulic component matching. J Hydrodyn 35, 649–667 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42241-023-0051-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42241-023-0051-x

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