PIV Measurements and CFD Analysis in an Axial-Flow Pump

In this study, an axial flow pump impeller without guide vanes is experimentally investigated. The impeller used in the experiments consists of four blades. The particle image velocimetry technique and a five-hole probe have been used. Measurements of flow velocities in the outer part of the impeller have been made. PIV measurements have been realized in 12 meridian planes between blade-to-blade for design and off-design operating conditions. The meridian velocity is obtained with phase averaged method and the total circumferential mean velocity is obtained with an arithmetical average over the 12 circumferential data. The calculation is based on the CFX-TASC flow CFD code solving the three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equation with RNG k–ε model of turbulence. The paper focuses on the comparisons of the results. Difference for the flow field between numerical and experimental results is small at large and design flow rate, while big difference occurs at small flow rate. It indicates that the numerical model is not suitable for separation flow.