This paper studies the attached sheet cavitation in centrifugal pumps. A pump casted from Perspex is used as the test subject. The cavitation bubbles were observed in the entrance of the impeller and the drops of the head coefficients were measured under different operating conditions. A Filter-Based Model （FBM）, derived from the RNG k-e model, and a modified Zwart model are adopted in the numerical predictions of the unsteady cavitating flows in the pump. The simulations are carded out and the results are compared with experimental results for 3 different flow coefficients, from 0.077 to 0.114. Under four operating conditions, qualitative comparisons are made between experimental and numerical cavitation patterns, as visualized by a high-speed camera and described as isosurfaces of the vapour volume fraction ctv = 0.1. It is shown that the simulation can truly represent the development of the attached sheet cavitation in the impeller. At the same time, the curves for the drops of the head coefficients obtained from experiments and calculations are also quantitatively compared, which shows that the decline of the head coefficients at every flow coefficient is correctly captured, and the prediction accuracy is high. In addition, the detailed analysis is made on the vapour volume fraction contours on the plane of span is 0.5 and the loading distributions around the blade section at the midspan. It is shown that the FBM model and the modified Zwart model are effective for the numerical simulation of the cavitating flow in centrifugal pumps. The analysis results can also be used as the basis for the further research of the attached sheet cavitation and the improvement of centrifugal pumps.
The inner flow analysis of centrifugal pumps has gradually become an important issue for the hydraulic design and performance improvement.Nowadays,CFD simulation toolbox of pump inner flow mainly contains commercial tools and open source tools.There are some defects for commercial CFD software for the numerical simulation of 3-D turbulent internal flow in pump,especially in capturing the flow characteristics under the off-design operating conditions.Additionally,it is difficult for researchers to do further investigation because of the undeclared source.Therefore,an open source software like Open Field Operation and Manipulation （OpenFOAM） is increasingly popular with researchers from all over the world.In this paper,a new computational study was implemented based on the original solver and was used to directly simulate the steady-state inner flow in a double blades pump,with the specific speed is 111.In order to disclose the characteristics deeply,three research schemes were conducted.The ratios （） of the flow rate are 0.8,1.0 and 1.2,respectively.The simulation results were verified with the Particle Imaging Velocimetry （PIV） experimental results,and the numerical calculation results agree well with the experimental data.Meanwhile,the phenomena of flow separation under the off-design operating conditions are well captured by OpenFOAM.The results indicate that OpenFOAM possesses obvious strong predominance in computing the internal flow field of pump.The analysis results can also be used as the basis for the further research and the improvement of centrifugal pump.
LIU Hou-linREN YunWANG KaiWU Deng-haoRU Wei-minTAN Ming-gao
