Experimental and Numerical Studies of Pump Transient Characteristics During Stopping Period

Experimental and numerical studies were carried out to study the transient characteristics of the centrifugal pump during stopping periods. Different stopping schemes were realized by changing the rotational inertia of the flywheels. Transient revolution rotational speed, flow-rate, total pressure rise and torque were measured under different rotational inertia. Experimental results of different operating conditions were compared, and transient hydrodynamics performances of the centrifugal pump model were analyzed. In order to provide boundary conditions for numerical simulations, the revolution curves of the flow-rate and the rotational speed were polynomial fitted. Three dimensional unsteady incompressible viscous flows during stopping periods were studied by using DES model in FLUENT. Results show that the hydrodynamic characteristics of numeric and experiment agree well. The transient effect is not so evident, and the quasi-steady assumption is acceptable during most part of coastdown process. The pump characteristics are further explained by analyzing the relative velocity on the middle stream surfaces. At the end of the stopping period, the transient vortex evolution between blades is the main reason why the transient curves deviates the steady curve. The studies can help understand the operating characteristics of centrifugal pump when power failure accident occurs.