Computational Study of Pressure Pulsation in a Medium Specific Speed Pump

The centrifugal pump of high specific speed with a diagonal type of impeller flow is studied experimentally and numerically. Both 2D and 3D numerical methods are used by applying acoustics–vortex equations. Increasing energetic parameters of centrifugal pumps requires a more complex geometry of the impeller and volute as one needs to raise the specific speed of the pump to provide a higher efficiency value. The pump of higher specific speed has an impeller with curved blades and diagonal meridional section. The flow outgoing the impeller has an essential axial component of velocity. Thus the two dimensional approach will not give the accurate prediction of pressure pulsations in the volute casing. This is why the new 3-dimensional method has been elaborated for this task. The 3D computational results of pressure pulsations are compared with those obtained by 2D-computation Measurements show that in the beginning of volute, in the pseudo-sound zone, amplitude of Blade Passing Frequency (BPF) spectral component is higher than that at the pump outlet by an order of magnitude. The 3-Dimensional analysis gives a good agreement with experimental data while the 2D prediction underestimates the BPF amplitude in the beginning of volute.