Design and analysis of a radial diffuser in a single-stage centrifugal pump

Abstract

Radial diffusers can improve the flow uniformity in pumps and affect the hydraulic performance of centrifugal pumps directly. The diffusion coefficient d is an important parameter in fluid machinery but it has seldom been used in the diffuser design of single-stage centrifugal pumps. To improve the design method of radial diffuser use in centrifugal pumps, the diffusion coefficient was introduced into the design of radial diffusers based on a single-arc hydraulic design method and it was found that the vane outlet angle, vane outlet thickness and vane number have a significant impact on the design results. A single-stage centrifugal pump with a radial diffuser was selected as the research model. The inner flow was simulated using the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program CFX and verified by experiment. The results indicate that the head and efficiency of the pump are best when the vane outlet angle is 6°. The flow area decreases and the flow velocity at radial diffuser outlet increase when the outlet thickness is greater than 2 mm. The hydraulic loss is minimum and the head and efficiency are better when the vane number is 8 at different flow rates. So, the optimal range of the diffusion coefficient for the model pump is around 1.6 to 2. The study indicates that it is feasible to design radial diffusers according to the diffusion coefficient. ARTICLE HISTORY

Design Optimization of the Centrifugal Pumps via Low Fidelity Models

“…Their result shows that a properly placed splitter blades by choosing suitable design factors can improve the flow in the pump and enhance its hydraulic performance. Surrogate models used to optimize the shape of diffuser of a centrifugal pump were presented by [55][56][57]. Kim [55] selected vane plane development as design parameters to improve the performance of pump using CFD and response surface methods.…”

“…The optimization process was based on radial basis neural network to enhance the performance of pump at high flow regions. The radial diffusers can improve the flow uniformity in pumps and affect the performance of centrifugal pump directly [57]. The pump performance is greatly affected by viscosity of the fluid pumped.…”

Clocking effect of outlet RGVs on hydrodynamic characteristics in a centrifugal pump with an inlet inducer by CFD method

“…If improperly designed, the clocking effect will result in high-pressure fluctuations, structure vibration, and even piping rupture in the pump system. However, the designers often neglect the location of the RGVs in the practical design and installation process of pumps (Tan, He, Liu, Dong et al, 2016).…”

Determination of Averaged Axisymmetric Flow Surfaces and Meridian Streamlines in the Centrifugal Pump Using Numerical Simulation Results

“…There are many attempts to use the CFD results of flow in turbo pump impellers in the process of developing their optimal design [9][10][11][12].…”