Login Register Cart 0
Generic placeholder image

Recent Patents on Mechanical Engineering

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 2212-7976
ISSN (Online): 1874-477X

Back
Journal Home About Journal Editorial Board Journal Insight Current Issue Volumes/Issues
Subscribe
Research Article

Performance Analysis and Cavitation Prediction of Centrifugal Pump Using Various Working Fluids

Author(s): Atiq Ur Rehman, Akshoy Ranjan Paul* and Anuj Jain

Volume 12, Issue 3, 2019

Page: [227 - 239] Pages: 13

DOI: 10.2174/2212797612666190619161711

Price: $65

Abstract

Background: The application of centrifugal pumps is found in domestic and petrochemical industries. Industrial centrifugal pumps are designed and tested using water as working fluid before supplied to industries, as water is commonly available. However, centrifugal pumps are used in industries for various applications, which involve the handling of fluids other than water- like saline-water, crude oil, gasoline, etc. Consequently, hydraulic performance of the pump differs from the designed and tested values and pump performance becomes unpredictable. Cavitation characteristics of the pump handling different fluids other than water are also changed and many a time, cavitation starts prematurely. As a result, the operating cost of pump is increased.

Objective: A CFD based computational analysis of a single-stage, single-entry industrial centrifugal pump having double-volute casing is carried out to compare the performance and cavitation characteristics for various working fluids, namely water, saline water with varying salinity, gasolene and crude oil.

Methods: Multiple Reference Frame method (MRF) available in Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations based CFD solver Ansys-CFX is used in the present study. CFD simulation is carried out for five flow rates with Standard k-ε turbulence model. Rayleigh-Plesset equation describing the growth of a single vapor bubble in a liquid is used for predicting the cavitation flow behaviour.

Results: Minimum static pressure is computed at the suction side of saline water as compared to the other working fluids studied here. Hydraulic efficiency of crude oil is found to be the lowest as compared to other fluids. Supercavitation (excessive formation of vapor bubbles and sudden drop in head up to 3%) starts early for saline water with 40g/kg salinity.

Conclusion: The results show little variation in pump efficiency when water and saline water are used as working fluids. However, cavitation characteristics differ considerably with the working fluids. Recent patents filed/published in this area revealed that efforts are needed to develop effective cavitationresistant centrifugal impellers and pumps.

Keywords: Cavitation prediction, centrifugal pump, hydraulic performance, Net Positive Suction Head (NPSH), vapor bubble, working fluids.

« Previous Next »
[1]
Knapp RT. Centrifugal-pump performance as affected by design features. Trans ASME 1941; 63(4): 251-60.
[2]
Ippen AT. The influence of viscosity on centrifugal pump performance. Trans ASME 1946; 68(8): 823-30.
[3]
Itaya S, Nishikawa T. Studies on the volute pumps handling viscous fluids. Bull JSME 1960; 26(162): 202-12.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1299/kikai1938.26.202]
[4]
Oh HW, Chung MK. Optimum values of design variables versus specific speed for centrifugal pumps. Proc Inst Mech Eng, A J Power Energy 1999; 213(3): 219-26.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1243/0957650991537563]
[5]
Friedrichs J, Kosyna G. Rotating cavitation in a centrifugal pump impeller of low specific speed. J Fluids Eng 2002; 124(2): 356-62.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.1457451]
[6]
Houlin L, Yong W, Shouqi Y, Minggao T, Kai W. Effects of blade number on characteristics of centrifugal pumps Chin J Mech Eng-2010 23(6): 742-.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2010.06.742]
[7]
Lei T, Shu-Liang C, Yu-Ming W, Bao-Shan Z. Numerical simulation of cavitation in a centrifugal pump at low flow rate. Chin Phys Lett 2012; 29(1)014702
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0256-307X/29/1/014702]
[8]
Al-Hashmi SA. Statistical analysis of acoustic signal for cavitation detection. Int J Emerg Techand Advanced Eng 2013; 3(4): 55-66.
[9]
Kotb A, Abdulaziz AM. Investigating the validity of acoustic spectrum as a prediction tool for pump cavitation. Energy Power Eng 2015; 7(13): 575-83.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/epe.2015.713054]
[10]
Li WG. A method for analyzing the performance of centrifugal oil pumps. Trans ASME 2004; 126(5): 482-5.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.1760544]
[11]
ShojaeeFard MH Boyaghchi FA, Ehghaghi MB. Experimental study and three-dimensional numerical flow simulation in a centrifugal pump when handling viscous fluids. IUST Int J Eng Sci 2006; 17(3-4): 53-60.
[12]
Li WG. Blade exit angle effects on performance of a standard industrial centrifugal oil pump. J Appl Fluid Mech 2011; 4(2): 105-19.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/15/3/032058]
[13]
Imran SA, Samad A. Performance analysis of a centrifugal impeller used for crude oil pumping. E-Proc Second International Conference on Drilling Technology (ICDT) and First National Symposium on Petroleum Science and Engineering (NSPSE). Madras, India, December 2012.
[14]
Shojaeefard MH, Tahani M, Khalkhali A, Ehghaghi MB, Fallah H, Beglari M. A parametric study for improving the centrifugal pump impeller for use in viscous fluid pumping. J Heat Mass Transf 2013; 49(2): 197-206.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00231-012-1074-y]
[15]
Li WG. Mechanism for onset of sudden-rising head effect in centrifugal pump when handling viscous oils. J Fluids Eng ASME 2014; 136(7): 501-10.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.4026882]
[16]
Medvitz RB, Kunz RF, Boger DA, Lindau JW, Yocum AM, Pauley LL. Performance analysis of cavitating flow in centrifugal pumps using multiphase CFD. ASME J Fluids Eng 2002; 124(2): 377-83.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.1457453]
[17]
Nohmi M. Cavitation CFD in a centrifugal pump. Proc Fifth International Symposium on Cavitation (CAV-2003). Osaka, Japan November . 2003.
[18]
Ridha Z, Souissi NB. Predicting appearance of cavitation in pumps with a numerical approach www.cham.co.uk/PUC/PUM_London/papers/ENIT22005; 1-4.
[19]
Pierrat D, Gros L, Pintrand G, Le Fur B, Gyomlai P. Experimental and numerical investigations of leading edge cavitation in a helico-centrifugal pump. 12th International Symposium of Transport Phenomena and Dynamics on Rotating Machinery. Honolulu, HI, USA February, . 2008.
[20]
Yong W, Lin LH, Qi YS, Gao TM, Kai W. Prediction research on cavitation performance for centrifugal pumps. International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Intelligent Systems , IEEE Shanghai, China, December, 2009.
[21]
Abbas MK. Cavitation in centrifugal pumps. Diyala J Eng Sci 2010; 1: 170-80.
[22]
Huang S, Guan J. Analysis on cavitation performance in multi-stage centrifugal pump based on cavitation model. Adv Mat Res 2011; 317-319: 414-7.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.317-319.414]
[23]
An YJ, Shin BR. Numerical investigation of suction vortices behavior in centrifugal pump. J Mech Sci Technol 2011; 25(3): 767-72.
[24]
Li XJ, Pan ZY, Zhang DQ, Yuan SQ. Centrifugal pump performance drop due to leading edge cavitation. IOP Conf Ser Earth Environ Sci 2012; 15(3)032058-11.
[http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1088/1755-1315/15/3/032058]
[25]
Xie SF, Wang Y, Liu ZC, Zhu ZT, Ning C, Zhao LF. Optimization of centrifugal pump cavitation performance based on CFD. IOP Conf Ser Mater Sci Eng 2015; 72(3): 0320236.
[http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1088/1757-899X/72/3/032023]
[26]
Guo X, Zhu L, Zhu Z, Cui B, Li Y. Numerical and experimental investigations on the cavitation characteristics of a high-speed centrifugal pump with a splitter-blade inducer. J Mech Sci Technol 2015; 29(1): 259-67.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12206-014-1232-x]
[27]
Zhang S, Zhang R, Zhang S, Yang J. Effect of impeller inlet geometry on cavitation performance of centrifugal pumps based on radial basis function Int J Rotating Machinery 2016; Article ID 6048263:; 1.9>.
[http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1007/s11431-014-5743-6]
[28]
Thai Q, Le C. The cavitation behavior with short length blades in centrifugal pump. J Mech Sci Technol 2010; 24(10): 2007-16.
[29]
Arabi AB Al, Saidur R, Kazi SN, Duffy GG. Detection of cavitation in centrifugal pumps. Aust J Basic Appl Sci 2011; 5(10): 1260-7.
[30]
He M, Fu LP, Zhou LJ, Guo Q, Wang ZW. Analysis of cavitation behaviour in a centrifugal pump. IOP Conf Ser Earth Environ Sci. 15(6): 062022.
[http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1088/1755-1315/15/6/062022]
[31]
Wei W, Luo XW, Ji B, Zhuang BT, Xu HY. Cavitating flow investigation inside centrifugal impellers for a condensate pump. IOP Conf Ser Earth Environ Sci. 15: 032061.
[32]
Kim MJ, Jin HB, Chung WJ. A study on prediction of cavitation for centrifugal pump. WASET Int J Mech Mechatron Eng 2012; 6(12): 612-7.
[33]
Tan L, Zhu B, Cao S, Wang Y. Cavitation flow simulation for a centrifugal pump at a low flow rate. Chin Sci Bull 2013; 58(8): 949-52.
[34]
Shinde P, Satam A. Cavitation effect in centrifugal pump. IJRSD 2014; 2(2): 20-3.
[35]
Zhang F, Yuan S, Fu Q, Pei J, Böhle M, Jiang X. Cavitation-induced unsteady flow characteristics in the first stage of a centrifugal charging pump. ASME J Fluids Eng 2017; 139(1)011303
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.4034362]
[36]
Rehman AU, Shinde S, Singh VK, Paul AR, Jain A, Mishra R. CFD based condition monitoring of centrifugal pump. Int Conf of Condition Monitoring and Diagnostic Eng Managment Helsinki, Finland, June 2013.
[37]
Zhou L, Shi WD, Cao WD, Yang HB. CFD investigation and PIV validation of flow field in a compact return diffuser under strong part-load conditions. Sci China Technol Sci 2015; 58(3): 405-14.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11431-014-5743-6]
[38]
Zhou L, Shi WD, Li W, Agarwal R. Particle image velocimetry measurements and performance experiments in a compact return diffuser under different rotating speed. Exp Tech 2016; 40(1): 245-52.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40799-016-0028-6]
[39]
ANSI/HI 13-2000 American National Standard for Centrifugal Pumps for Design and Application Hydraulic Institute, Parsippany, NJ, USA,. 2000.
[40]
Visser FC. Cavitation in centrifugal pumps and prediction theory. ASME Fluids Eng Division Summer Conference. Houston, Texas, USA , June. 2005.
[41]
Ding H, Visser FC, Jiang Y, Furmanczyk M. Demonstration and validation of a 3D CFD simulation tool predicting pump performance and cavitation for industrial applications. Trans ASME: J Fluids Eng 2011; 133(1): 1-14.
[42]
Ansys CFX-Solver Theory Guide, Release 12.1; 158-159, Ansys Inc., Pa 15317, USA 2009.
[43]
Church AH, Lal J. Centrifugal pumps and blowers. Metropolitan Book Co. Pvt. Ltd.: New Delhi, India 1973.
[44]
McGinn J. Radial impeller for a centrifugal pump. US6595752 (2003)
[45]
Cooper P, Sloteman DP. Impeller for centrifugal pump. US5192193 (1993)
[46]
Ran J, Wang W, Yuan S, Yuan J, Zhang J, Luo W. Design method for improving cavitation performance of centrifugal pump. CN201410153429 (2014)
[47]
Jayaram S, Gottschalk TJ, Hall CF, Nowitzki WJ. Centrfugal pump for handling abrasive-laden fluid. US9638207 (2017)
[48]
Birajdar RS, Kothale JB, Kulkarni PM. An auto priming centrifugal pump. IN279575 (2017)

Rights & Permissions Print Cite
Article Metrics
21
1
© 2024 Bentham Science Publishers | Privacy Policy