Current research on the operational reliability of centrifugal pumps has mainly focused on hydrodynamic instability. However, the interaction between the fluid and structure has not been sufficiently considered; this interaction can cause vibration and dynamic stress, which can affect the reliability. In this study, the dynamic stresses in a single-blade centrifugal pump impeller are analysed under different operating conditions; the two-way coupling method is used to calculate the fluid-structure interaction. Three-dimensional unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved with the SST k-o9 turbulence model for the fluid in the whole flow passage, while transient structure dynamic analysis is used with the finite element method for the structure side. The dynamic stresses in the rotor system are computed according to the fourth strength theory. The stress results show that the highest stress is near the loose bearing and that the equivalent stress increases with the flow rate because the dynamic stresses are closely related to the pressure load. The stress distributions on the blade pressure side, suction side, leading edge, and trailing edge are each analysed for different flow rates; the highest stress distribution is found on the pressure side. On the blade pressure side, a relatively large stress is found near the trailing edge and hub side. Based on these results, a stress distribution prediction method is proposed for centrifugal pumps, which considers the interaction between the fluid and structuxe. The method can be used to check the dynamic stress at different flow rates when optimising the pump design to increase the pump reliability.
With the increasing noise pollution, low noise optimization of centrifugal pimps has become a hot topic. However, experimental study on this problem is unacceptable for industrial applications due to unsustainable cost. A hybrid method that couples computational fluid dynamics （CFD） with computational aeroacoustic software is used to predict the flow-induced noise of pumps in order to minimize the noise of centrifugal pumps in actual projects. Under Langthjem＇s assumption that the blade surface pressure is the main flow-induced acoustic source in centrifugal pumps, the blade surface pressure pulsation is considered in terms of the acoustical sources and simulated using CFX software. The pressure pulsation and noise distribution in the near-cutoff region are examined for the blade-passing frequency （BPF） noise, and the sound pressure level （SPL） reached peaks near the cutoff that corresponded with the pressure pulsation in this region. An experiment is performed to validate this prediction. Four hydrophones are fixed to the inlet and outlet ports of the test pump to measure the flow-induced noise from the four-port model. The simulation results for the noise are analyzed and compared with the experimental results. The variation in the calculated noise with changes in the flow agreed well with the experimental results. When the flow rate was increased, the SPL first decreased and reached the minimum near the best efficient point （BEP）; it then increased when the flow rate was further increased. The numerical and experimental results confirmed that the BPF noise generated by a blade-rotating dipole roughly reflects the acoustic features of centrifugal pumps. The noise simulation method in current study has a good feasibility and suitability, which could be adopted in engineering design to predict and optimize the hydroacoustic behavior of centrifugal pumps.
Numerical simulation and 3-D periodic flow unsteadiness analysis for a centrifugal pump with volute are carried out in whole flow passage, including the impeller with twisted blades, the volute and the side chamber channels under a part-load condition. The pressure fluctuation intensity coefficient （PFIC） based on the standard deviation method, the time-averaged velocity unsteadiness intensity coefficient （VUIC） and the time-averaged turbulence intensity coefficient （TIC） are defined by averaging the results at each grid node for an entire impeller revolution period. Therefore, the strength distributions of the periodic flow unsteadiness based on the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes （URANS） equations can be analyzed directly and in detail. It is shown that under the 0.6Qd~. condition, the pressure fluctuation intensity is larger near the blade pressure side than near the suction side, and a high fluctuation intensity can be observed at the beginning section of the spiral of the volute. The flow velocity unsteadiness intensity is larger near the blade suction side than near the pressure side. A strong turbulence intensity can be found near the blade suction side, the impeller shroud side as well as in the side chamber. The leakage flow has a significant effect on the inflow of the impeller, and can increase both the flow velocity unsteadiness intensity and the turbulence intensity near the wall. The accumulative flow unstea- diness results of an impeller revolution can be an important aspect to be considered in the centrifugal pump optimum design for obtaining a more stable inner flow of the pump and reducing the flow-induced vibration and noise in certain components.
