The current paper describes an investigation into the industrial use of CFD and other computational technologies for the three-dimensional hydrodynamic design of vertical diffuser pumps and outlines the complete product development process. Detailed description of the complete design process is described and numerous CFD predictions of the flow are presented with detailed examination of the several factors affecting the hydrodynamics of impeller and diffuser and staging of the pump. Furthermore, variations of important geometrical design parameters based on the design optimisation procedure are discussed in accordance to the CFD results. The capabilities of the 3-D hydrodynamic design through CFD and the importance of the three dimensional blade geometry are demonstrated by the fact that two different pump impellers were designed based on strict design constraints affecting their basic dimensions. Finally, an overview of the functional prototypes development is described and comparisons are carried out between overall performance predictions and experimental results.

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