Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow Pattern Analysis Inside a Centrifugal Impeller Based on CFD Results

Numerical results obtained by calculations using URANS k-epsilon turbulence model combined with the Euler-Euler inhomogeneous two-phase model are presented including different inlet void fraction values in the inlet section of a centrifugal pump. Local information inside the impeller are extracted from CFD results to get more deep understanding on gas and water flow structures. Results explain the reason why pump performance degradation is more pronounced for low flow rates compared to high flow rates and the importance of inlet void fraction evolution with inlet gas fraction. They also confirm what has been already measured for overall performance modification and more locally visualized in existing open literature in such research field.