373

Numerical investigation of a centrifugal

pump running in reverse mode
J Fernández1 , R Barrio2∗ , E Blanco2 , J L Parrondo2 , and A Marcos1
1
Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Energética y de los Materiales, Universidad de Extremadura, Extremadura, Spain
2
Departamento de Energía, Universidad de Oviedo, Asturias, Spain

The manuscript was received on 6 February 2009 and was accepted after revision for publication on 16 October 2009.
DOI: 10.1243/09576509JPE757

Abstract: This article reports a work on the three-dimensional flow simulation in a centrifugal
pump operating in reverse mode. The simulations were carried out with the commercial code
Fluent using unsteady flow calculations together with a sliding mesh technique. Hence, it was
possible to account for the effect of blade–tongue interactions on the local flow. The numerical
predictions were compared with the experimentally determined performance characteristics and
also with the static pressure distribution obtained around the periphery of the impeller. Once val-
idated, the numerical model was used to investigate the global flow. Additionally, the total radial
force (steady and unsteady components) on the impeller for a number of flowrates was estimated.
It was found that the unsteady radial force (peak to peak) varied between 24 and 54.3 per cent of
the steady value within the considered flow interval. The maximum force amplitude was reached
when the trailing edge of one blade (pressure side) was located 3◦ downstream of the tongue tip.

Keywords: pump-turbine, computational fluid dynamics simulations, unsteady flow, rotor–

stator interaction, radial load

1 INTRODUCTION then the theoretical head as a function of the geomet-

Vaneless centrifugal pumps can extract energy from a
flow of water to supply power to a generator [1, 2], thus
operating as hydraulic turbines. For this purpose, both
the impeller and the flow of fluid must reverse its usual
direction. The output is regulated by varying the mag-
nitude of flowrate, which, in turn, causes a change of
the inlet and outlet velocity triangles (see Fig. 1(a)).
The velocity v1 becomes v1 if flowrate is increased
and, additionally, the direction of w1 is modified, thus
increasing the impact losses at the inlet of the impeller.
Also, the velocity w2 becomes w2 at the impeller out-

let. In consequence, the tangential component v2u is
increased and gives rise to the so-called post-rotation.
If the following tangential velocity components are
substituted into Euler’s equation
v1m v2m
v1u = , v2u = u2 −
tgα1 tgβ2
∗ Corresponding author: Departamento de Energía, Universidad de
Oviedo, Gijón, Asturias, Spain.
email: barrioraul@uniovi.es
ric parameters and the flowrate can be expressed as
follows
u22 u1 v1m u2 v2m
Hth = − + +
g g tgα1 g tgβ2
The real height H (see Fig. 1(b)) can be obtained
from the previous expression if hydraulic losses are
introduced.
When operating in design conditions (i.e. at pump
nominal flowrate), the stream of flow matches the
geometry of the impeller blades and the volute. This
causes an optimum impeller–volute coupling [3–5]
and reduces the flow instabilities to a minimum. How-
ever, when running at the same flowrate in reverse
mode (i.e. the fluid flows from the impeller periph-
ery to the eye), it is observed that the fluid stream does
not naturally match the geometry of either the blades
or the volute. This change in coupling conditions is
caused, among other factors, by the slip at the impeller
periphery and also by the expansion/contraction of
the fluid in the bound between the impeller and the
volute. In addition, good incidence conditions cannot
be maintained at the inlet of the impeller when chang-
ing the flowrate (as it is done in hydraulic turbines) due

JPE757 Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part A: J. Power and Energy

374 J Fernández, R Barrio, E Blanco, J L Parrondo, and A Marcos
Fig. 1 (a) Velocity triangles and (b) theoretical (Hth ) and
real (H ) characteristic in a centripetal turbine
to the lack of stationary guide vanes. This causes a shift
of the point of maximum efficiency towards a higher
flowrate than that corresponding to pump mode (the
ratio is about 1.47 for the pump considered in the
investigation, as can be seen in Fig. 2). The shape of
the efficiency curve typically rises steeply before the
point of maximum efficiency and then declines slowly
(see Fig. 2). Hence, it is recommended for the working
flowrate to be equal or greater than the value at that
point. In consequence, the operating flowrate of the
reverse-running pump will be always greater than the
pump design flowrate [6], and thus the expected radial
unbalance (both steady and unsteady) can be much
higher than that in design conditions.
The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) pro-
grams constitutes nowadays a very useful tool for the
design and analysis of turbomachinery. The numer-
ical analysis of centrifugal turbomachines usually
implies full 3D flow simulations. This type of simula-
tion should include turbulent effects, secondary flows,
unsteady phenomena, etc., since the geometry of the
machine is usually quite complex. Particularly, if the
motion of an impeller inside an asymmetrical volute is
Fig. 2 Performance characteristics of a conventional
centrifugal pump working in pump (P) and
turbine (T) modes
Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part A: J. Power and Energy
considered, it is known that the unsteady nature of the
flow generates an unsteady interaction with the volute
that affects the performance of the turbomachine
[7–10]. This interaction also brings about pressure pul-
sations that propagate through the hydraulic circuit
and generate unsteady loads on the mechanical parts
[9, 10], thus constituting one of the major sources of
vibration and hydraulic noise [11].
Some of the specific problems involved when mod-
elling centrifugal turbomachinery are as follows.
1. The geometry is typically quite complex. Hence, it
is convenient to use unstructured meshes due to
their better adaptation to the domain boundaries.
2. Cascade simulations are invalid since the energy
is mainly transferred by the effect of the centrifu-
gal forces within the impeller. Thus, centrifugal and
Coriolis forces must be included in the equations of
the elements in rotating motion.
3. The periodic interaction between the impeller and
the volute requires a non-stationary solution pro-
cedure to calculate the time derivatives of the
equations. Also, the simulation of this dynamic
interaction was found to require a moving or
deforming mesh coupled with the unsteady calcu-
lations (quasi-unsteady simulations fail to account
for some of the time derivatives).
The present investigation is a complement of the
previous experiments reported in reference [6] for a
centrifugal pump running in reverse mode. A numer-
ical model of this pump was developed to carry
out full 3D unsteady flow calculations with the code
Fluent [12]. The dependence of the numerical pre-
dictions with respect to grid and time step size was
investigated. The model was subsequently validated
with the previously collected experimental data of
global performance characteristics and static pres-
sure distribution around the periphery of the impeller.
Once validated, the model was used to investigate the
global flow and also to estimate the total radial force
(steady and unsteady components) on the impeller as
a function of flowrate.
2 NUMERICAL MODEL AND COMPUTATIONAL
METHODOLOGY
A conventional single-suction and volute-type cen-
trifugal pump was use for the investigation. This pump
uses impeller trimmings as a means to adjust the
magnitude of flowrate. The test impeller (a medium
size of the impeller series) is 200 mm in outer diame-
ter with seven backward blades of logarithmic profile
and an eye diameter of 105 mm. The minimum radial
gap between the impeller and the tongue is 17 per
cent of the impeller outer radius. The nominal per-
formance values of the pump running at 1750 r/min
are 0.018 m3 /s for flowrate and 17 m for total head.
JPE757
 Numerical investigation of a centrifugal pump running in reverse mode 375

Fig. 3 Impeller and casing of the test pump

The non-dimensional specific speed is ns = 0.53 (more

information can be found in reference [6]). Figure 3
presents two pictures of the test pump showing the
geometry of the impeller and the casing.
The CFD code Fluent [12] was used to solve the flow
equations. Figure 4 shows two images of the unstruc-
tured surface mesh. A general view of the pump geom-
etry is presented in Fig. 4(a), which also shows small
pipe portions at the inlet and outlet of the machine.
A detail of the impeller blades can be observed in
Fig. 4(b). The mesh was specially refined near the criti-
cal zones of the pump, such as the leading and trailing
edges of the blades and the volute tongue, as can be
seen in Fig. 4. This restricted the maximum cell skew
to 0.86.
The boundary conditions imposed were a uniform
velocity distribution at the inlet and a constant static
pressure at the outlet. Second-order discretizations
were used for the convection terms and central dif-
ference schemes for the diffusion terms. The time-
dependent term was second order and implicit. The
pressure–velocity coupling was established by means
of the SIMPLE algorithm. Turbulence was simulated by
means of the standard k-epsilon model together with Fig. 4 (a) Global view of the surface mesh and (b) detail
standard wall functions to calculate boundary layer of the impeller blades
variables. The average y+ magnitude at the impeller
surfaces, supposed as adiabatic walls, was about 180.
The sliding mesh technique [12] was used to impose In particular, the ratio between the sum of the residu-
the relative motion between the impeller and the als and the sum of the fluxes for a given variable in all
volute. This technique uses an interpolation routine the cells had to be less than 10−5 (five orders of magni-
to exchange data of the cells on both sides. tude). About 5–7 impeller revolutions were required to
Steady-state calculations were carried out first by achieve unsteady convergence, i.e. the flow variables
means of a frozen-rotor interface (i.e. for a given angu- became periodic when considering one full revolution.
lar position of the impeller). The resulting velocity The dependence of the numerical predictions with
and pressure fields were used as initial conditions for respect to grid and time step size was investigated
the unsteady calculations once steady convergence before carrying out the bulk of the simulations. For
was achieved. The time step size for the calculations this purpose, the size of the grid was varied between
was 2.45 × 10−4 s, which corresponded to a total of 250 000 and 500 000 cells. Additionally, the number of
140 time steps per impeller revolution. The average time steps in each blade passage was varied between
courant number was CFL = 1.8. The number of iter- 10 and 35 (i.e. the time step size varied between
ations in each time step was adjusted to reduce the 4.9 × 10−4 and 1.4 × 10−4 s). The results of the grid and
magnitude of the residuals below an acceptable level. time dependence tests are presented in Fig. 5. This

JPE757 Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part A: J. Power and Energy

376 J Fernández, R Barrio, E Blanco, J L Parrondo, and A Marcos
Fig. 5 Results of the grid and time step independence
tests
figure shows the magnitude of the outlet static pres-
sure (chosen as the reference variable) for the different
time steps (bottom x-axis and left y-axis) and grid sizes
(top x-axis and right y-axis) considered in the investi-
gation. The pressure is presented normalized by the
magnitude obtained with either the minimum time
step size or the finest grid.
As can be seen in Fig. 5, the outlet static pressure
does not change significantly with grid size: the vari-
ation is lower than 1.1 per cent for the smallest grid
size of those tested (about 250 000 cells). The grid size
used for the calculations (about 300 000 cells) shows a
variation lower than 0.7 per cent. It is also observed in
Fig. 5 that the change in p* with time step size is even
less significant: the pressure variation remains below 1
per cent. This variation is lower than 0.3 per cent when
considering the time step size used for the calculations
(i.e. 20 time steps per blade passage).
The dependence of the numerical predictions with
respect to the turbulence model was additionally
investigated. In particular, the change in the out-
let static pressure when performing the simulations
with the following turbulence models was studied:
k-epsilon standard, k-epsilon RNG, and RSM. The
results of this investigation showed pressure variations
below 3 per cent.
3 EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION
The numerical simulations were carried out for the
pump operating in reverse mode at 1750 r/min. Five
flowrates were considered for the investigation: 50,
65, 80, 100, and 120 m3 /h. Figure 6 shows a compar-
ison between the experimentally determined perfor-
mance characteristics (solid lines) and the predictions
obtained with the numerical model (icons). The head,
power, and efficiency curves were calculated by aver-
aging over one full impeller revolution (i.e. 140 sam-
ples). The experimental uncertainty was estimated to
be less than 1.06 per cent for flowrate, 2.38 per cent
for head, 0.86 per cent for power, and 2.75 per cent
for efficiency. Additional details of the experimental
Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part A: J. Power and Energy
Fig. 6 Performance characteristics of the test pump
working in reverse mode at 1750 r/min. Lines:
experimental data; icons: numerical predictions
set-up and measurement procedure can be found in
reference [6].
As can be seen in Fig. 6, there is, in general, good
agreement between the numerical predictions and the
experimental data. The trend of the characteristics is
appropriately captured by the model and, additionally,
it is observed that the prediction of head and power is
quite close to the experimental values for all the test
flowrates. This is particularly evident for head, where a
maximum relative error of about 9 per cent is obtained
for the highest flowrate.
The provided power was numerically estimated by
means of a full integration of the instantaneous pres-
sure and shear stress distribution on the blade walls to
obtain the generated torque. It is noted in Fig. 6 that
the model tends to overestimate the power, showing
typical values of the relative error of about 10 per cent.
This can be partially explained considering that the
numerical model does not contain the front and back
walls of the casing (see Fig. 4(a)). Hence, the volumet-
ric and disc friction losses were not included in the
simulations. The numerical calculations of the gener-
ated power cause an overestimation of the efficiency
and, additionally, an underestimation of the nominal
flowrate. Thus, it is observed in Fig. 6 that the exper-
imental tests show a rate condition of about 95 m3 /h;
in contrast, the numerical model predicts a nominal
flowrate of 80 m3 /h. As flowrate is increased the gap
between the two curves is decreased, showing a rela-
tive error of about 10 per cent at the highest flowrate.
The non-dimensional average static pressure
around the impeller periphery is presented in Fig. 7
for three of the test flowrates. The numerical predic-
tion at each angular position (icons) was obtained after
averaging over a full impeller revolution (the angular
position ϕ is measured counter clockwise from the tip
of the tongue). The uncertainty of the experimental
data (solid lines) was estimated to be <1.5 per cent.
The static pressure is shown in this figure normalized
by the dynamic pressure associated with the tangential
velocity at the impeller periphery u1 .
JPE757
 Numerical investigation of a centrifugal pump running in reverse mode 377

Fig. 7 Angular distribution around the impeller periph-

ery of the non-dimensional average static pres-
sure for three of the test flowrates. Lines:
experimental data; icons: numerical predictions

As seen in Fig. 7, there is quite a good agreement

between the numerical predictions and the experi-
mental data. It is observed that the maximum relative
error seems to increase with flowrate despite keeping
below reasonably values. The maximum magnitude
of this error is about 2.3 per cent at 65 m3 /h (Q65 )
while reaching a value of 4.3 per cent at 80 m3 /h
(Q80 ). At 100 m3 /h (Q100 ), the relative error increases
to 4.7 per cent. Additionally, it can be noted in Fig. 7
that the magnitude of the average static pressure
increases continuously with flowrate, and also that
the values reached are about two times greater than
those previously obtained when operating in pump
mode [13].
The angular distribution of the average static pres-
sure represents an estimation of the expected radial
unbalance. The volute of centrifugal pumps is usu-
ally designed to experience a minimum radial thrust
when operating at pump nominal flowrate [3]. Hence,
radial unbalance will be always present when work-
ing in reverse mode since the operating flow is always
greater than the rated flow of the pump. Nonethe-
less, its average magnitude is expected to be relatively
low due to the greater uniformity of the static pres-
sure, as observed in Fig. 7. The estimation of the total
radial load (steady and unsteady components) on the
impeller as a function of flowrate will be the topic of
following sections.
4 ANALYSIS OF THE NUMERICAL RESULTS
A contour map of the instantaneous static pressure
obtained at impeller mid-span (the XY plane of Fig. 4)
is presented in Fig. 8 for two of the test flowrates. As
seen, the static pressure diminishes from the outer to
the inner sections of the impeller due to the trans-
mission of energy from the fluid to blades. When
the flowrate is increased from 50 to 80 m3 /h, a more
pronounced pressure variation along the volute is
observed, along with a pressure rise at the periphery
of the impeller. In consequence, the head through the
Fig. 8 Contour map of the instantaneous static pres-
sure (kPa) obtained at impeller mid-span for the
flowrates of (a) 50 m3 /h and (b) 80 m3 /h
machine is increased (see Fig. 6) as expected for a cen-
trifugal turbine. Additionally, it is observed in Fig. 8
that the pressure distribution around the impeller for
both flowrates is quite uniform (as previously seen
in Fig. 7). Only a small pressure drop is noticeable
at the region located between the tongue and the
impeller exit (which is more evident at Q80 flowrate).
This pressure variation is experienced by the blades
when they pass by the tongue tip, thus giving rise
to an unsteady load on the impeller, as discussed in
following sections.
The velocity distribution at a region located near
the eye of the impeller is presented in Fig. 9 for the
previous flowrates. The vectors shown in this figure
are the sum of the axial and radial components of
the absolute velocity on the YZ plane (see Fig. 4). As
observed, there is a good guidance of the flow through
the passageways at 80 m3 /h flowrate, showing stream-
lines that follow the geometry of the impeller walls.
It is also noted that the flow distribution through the
impeller eye is quite uniform, which causes the dis-
charge of the fluid mainly in the axial direction. In

JPE757 Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part A: J. Power and Energy

378 J Fernández, R Barrio, E Blanco, J L Parrondo, and A Marcos
Fig. 9 Velocity distribution (on the YZ plane) at a region
located near the eye of the impeller for the
flowrates of (a) 50 m3 /h and (b) 80 m3 /h
contrast, it can be seen that the flow pattern through
the passageways and the eye region is less uniform
at 50 m3 /h flowrate. The modification of the flow pat-
tern is caused by the presence of a region of fluid
that reverses direction. This fluid region is located
ahead of the impeller at the inner section of the
duct, showing a small velocity magnitude in the YZ
plane as observed in Fig. 9(a). It was found, however,
that this re-circulating bulk of fluid develops a tan-
gential component in the XY plane of comparatively
high magnitude, which induces a motion in the same
direction as the impeller.
The induced tangential velocity at the exit of the
impeller is closely related to the velocity triangles
of Fig. 1. As this figure shows, the fluid only leaves
the impeller with no noticeable rotation (i.e. v2u = 0)
when α2 = 0◦ . In contrast, the flow develops a motion
in the tangential direction if flowrate deviates from
rated conditions. This tangential component of the
velocity can induce a rotation either in the same direc-
tion as the impeller (low flowrates) or in the opposite
direction (high flowrates).
The presence of fluid rotation at the exit of the
impeller was investigated. The results of the investiga-
tion are presented in Fig. 10 as a function of flowrate.
This figure shows the magnitude of the tangential
velocity obtained at several test points along the duct
radius located 5 cm downstream of the impeller eye.
The tangential velocity vu is shown normalized by
the tangential velocity at impeller outlet u2 ; the radial
coordinate r is normalized by the duct radius.
It is noted in Fig. 10 that the absolute velocity devel-
ops a tangential component at the exit of the impeller
for all the test flowrates. It is also observed that this
tangential component shows a non-uniform spatial
Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part A: J. Power and Energy
Fig. 10 Spatial evolution of the non-dimensional tan-
gential velocity at several points along the duct
radius for the test flowrates
distribution along the duct radius. The tangential
velocity reaches minimum values that are about −0.25
on average near the point of maximum efficiency (i.e.
at Q80 flowrate). This point of operations also shows a
spatial distribution of this velocity that is the most uni-
form among the test flowrates. Additionally, it is seen
in Fig. 10 that the magnitude of the tangential veloc-
ity is increased as flowrate is decreased. Thus, it can
be observed that the tangential component reaches
a magnitude of −0.4 at Q65 flowrate. If flowrate is
decreased further down to Q50 , a maximum magnitude
of −0.45 is obtained. It must be taken into account that
the machine rotates in the clockwise direction when
working in reverse mode. In consequence, according
to the reference system of Fig. 4, it can be noted that
the rotation vector is opposite to the Z -axis. Hence, the
negative magnitude of the tangential velocity shown in
Fig. 10 means that the fluid rotates in the same direc-
tion as the impeller (as expected for flowrates below
the rated one, see Fig. 1).
The tangential velocity is also increased (in this case
towards positive magnitudes) if flowrate rises above
nominal conditions. Thus, it is observed in Fig. 10
that the tangential component reaches a magnitude of
about 0.25 at Q100 flowrate. This magnitude increases
to 0.6 if the Q120 flowrate is considered. The positive
magnitude of the tangential velocity for these high
flowrates indicates that the fluid rotates in an oppo-
site direction to that of the impeller (as expected from

vector v2u in Fig. 1).
The results of Fig. 10 show other interesting effects
of the flow: the displacement along the duct radius
of the point where a maximum tangential velocity
is obtained. Hence, it is observed that this point is
located at r/rDUCT ∼ 0.2 at Q50 flowrate, whereas it
is seen at ∼0.45 for the Q65 flowrate. If the flowrate
increases to Q80 , it can be noted that the point moves
closer to the duct wall and is located at r/rDUCT ∼0.75,
where it is also observed for Q100 flowrate. If the
flowrate is increased further, the trend seems to
JPE757
 Numerical investigation of a centrifugal pump running in reverse mode
reverse, showing that the point of maximum tangen-
tial velocity displaces back to the inner sections of the
duct. This can be observed at Q120 flowrate: the maxi-
mum magnitude of the tangential velocity is obtained
at r/rDUCT ∼ 0.6.
5 STEADY AND UNSTEADY RADIAL FORCES
The degree of similarity between the numerical results
and the available experimental data, and the numeri-
cal prediction of the global flow shown in the previous
sections, was considered to be adequate to validate
the model. In consequence, the numerical model was
used to predict the total radial force acting on the
impeller.
The magnitude of this force was estimated by storing
the unsteady flow computations during one blade pas-
sage period (i.e. 20 time steps) for each test flowrate.
The radial force was computed at each time instant
by means of a full integration of the instantaneous
pressure and shear stress distribution on the impeller
surfaces. The results of this procedure are shown in
Fig. 11 (non-dimensional X -force versus Y -force) for
all the test flowrates.
As can be seen in Fig. 11, the average magnitude of
the radial force increases continuously with flowrate
in accordance with the results presented in reference
[6]. It is also noted that the force vector follows an ellip-
tical trace that stretches along the Y -axis (this is more
noticeable at the higher flowrates), thus indicating
that the force mainly pulsates in the vertical direc-
tion. Additionally, it can be observed in Fig. 11 that the
Fig. 11 Time evolution of the non-dimensional radial
force vector (X -force versus Y -force) during one
blade passage period for the test flowrates
JPE757
379
magnitude of the force pulsation (roughly estimated
as the length of the major axis of the ellipse) increases
with flowrate. The analysis of the numerical predic-
tions also revealed that the force vector rotates in the
same direction as the impeller (clockwise direction, as
indicated in the figure).
The average value of the radial force and also the
estimation of its maximum and minimum amplitudes
are presented in Fig. 12 for the test flowrates. Addition-
ally, this figure shows the magnitude of the average
radial force obtained from static pressure measure-
ments around the impeller (see reference [6] for more
details). As observed in Fig. 12, the average force
fAVE increases almost linearly with flowrate (regres-
sion coefficient R 2 = 0.998), showing a constant slope
of 0.81 N/(m3 /h). The magnitude of the pulsation is
also increased with flowrate (as previously observed
in Fig. 11), thus representing an important dynamic
load on the impeller. The relative pulsation (peak to
peak) is about 24 per cent of the average value at Q50
flowrate (φ = 0.0091), whereas it reaches a magnitude
of 37.6 per cent at Q65 flowrate (φ = 0.012). If flowrate
is increased to Q80 (φ = 0.015), the pulsation rises to
46.7 per cent of the average value, whereas it reaches
a magnitude of about 53 per cent at the Q100 flowrate
(φ = 0.019). The pulsation is about 54.3 per cent of
the average value at the highest flowrate considered in
the present investigation (Q120 , φ = 0.023).
The results of Fig. 11 show that the average radial
load on the impeller is expected to be lower in reverse
mode due to the bigger pressure uniformity at its
periphery (the estimation of the radial load in pump
mode can be found in reference [6]). The relative pul-
sation of the radial force (and thus the dynamic load),
however, was found to be higher when working as
a turbine. Finally, it can be observed in Fig. 11 that
there is a notorious gap between the numerical predic-
tions of the average load and the experimental results.
This can be partially explained considering that the
Fig. 12 Non-dimensional amplitude of: average (fAVE ),
minimum (fMIN ), and maximum (fMAX ) radial
forces as a function of flowrate and experimental
estimation from static pressure measurements
Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part A: J. Power and Energy
380 J Fernández, R Barrio, E Blanco, J L Parrondo, and A Marcos
Fig. 13 Relative blade to tongue position and location of the radial force vector at the time instant
of (a) maximum and (b) minimum radial forces
experimental calculation of the radial force was car-
ried out only from the integration of the average static
pressure around the impeller. In contrast, the numer-
ical estimation accounted for the pressure and shear
stress distribution on all the impeller surfaces (only
excluding the effect of the disc friction), and hence a
higher radial force is to be expected.
The relative blade to tongue position at the time
instants of the maximum and minimum radial forces
(and also the position of the force vector) is presented
in Fig. 13. As observed in the figure, the force vector
is always located at the third quadrant, showing lit-
tle differences between low and high flowrates (only
about 5–6◦ ). The maximum magnitude of the radial
force (Fig. 13(a)) is obtained when the trailing edge
of one blade (pressure side) is almost aligned with
the tip of the tongue (specifically, when it is located
3◦ downstream). On the contrary, the minimum force
magnitude (Fig. 13(b)) is reached when the tip of the
tongue is located halfway between two blades (specif-
ically, when the trailing edge of the nearest blade is
18◦ upstream of the tongue tip). As previously seen,
the static pressure reached low values near the tongue
region at this time instant (see Fig. 8). Additionally, it
is noted in Fig. 13 that the force argument shows little
variation between the time instants of the maximum
and minimum radial forces. Hence, although the radial
force can experience a notorious pulsation in magni-
tude, it can be concluded that its point of application
does not change significantly during the blade passage
period.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The performance of a conventional centrifugal pump
working as a centripetal turbine was numerically
investigated using the CFD code Fluent. The main
objective of the investigation was exploring the
application of the commercial code to predict its
global performance characteristics and, additionally,
Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part A: J. Power and Energy
to estimate the total radial force on the impeller under
different operating conditions.
The comparison between the numerical predic-
tions and the previously collected experimental data
showed, in general, good agreement between them. A
maximum relative error of 9 per cent was obtained for
the total head and about 5 per cent for the average
static pressure around the periphery of the impeller.
It was found that the model overestimated the magni-
tude of the efficiency and the generated power. This
was partially explained considering that the lateral
space between the impeller and the casing walls is
not included in the model, which cancelled the volu-
metric and disc friction losses during the simulations.
The numerical calculations also showed the existence
of a tangential velocity component at the exit of the
impeller for all the test flowrates. This component
induced a fluid rotation in the same direction as the
impeller for low flowrates and in the opposite direction
for high flowrates.
The total radial force (steady and unsteady com-
ponents) on the impeller during one blade passage
period was estimated by means of a full integra-
tion of the instantaneous pressure and shear stress
distribution on the impeller surfaces. It was found
that the average component varied almost linearly
with flowrate, showing a constant slope of about
0.81 N/(m3 /h), and also that the force vector rotated
in the same direction as the impeller during the blade
passage period. The locus of the vector followed a
quasi-elliptical trace with an increasing magnitude as
flowrate was increased. It was found that the relative
pulsation of the radial force varied between 24 per cent
and 54.3 per cent of the average value within the flow
interval considered. Additionally, it was observed that
the maximum force amplitude was obtained when the
trailing edge of one of the blades (pressure side) was
located 3◦ downstream of the tip of the tongue.
As a final conclusion it can be said that although
previous investigations by the authors revealed that
the average radial force in reverse mode is usually
JPE757
 Numerical investigation of a centrifugal pump running in reverse mode
lower than that in pump mode, the results of the
present work show that the unsteady effects due to
blade–tongue interaction can be of great importance,
especially at high flowrates, and thus should not be
ignored if a pump operates as a centripetal turbine.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial sup-
port of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain)
under project DPI-2006-15638-C02-02 entitled ‘Dis-
eño de bombas centrífugas para la minimización
de perturbaciones fluido-dinámicas por interacción
rotor-estator’. The authors also express their appre-
ciation to the reviewers, whose comments were very
helpful in guiding the preparation of the final version
of the article. This investigation was presented at the
ASME Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting,
2009, 2–6 August, Vail, Colorado, USA.
© Authors 2010
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APPENDIX
Notation
b width (m)
d diameter (m)
g gravity (m/s2 )
f radial force amplitude (N)
H , Hth head and theoretical head (m)
ns = ωQ 0.5 /(gH )0.75 specific speed
p, pT static pressure and
time-averaged static pressure
(Pa)
P power (W)
Q flowrate (m3 /s)
r radius (m)
R regression coefficient
t, tBP time and blade-passing time
(s)
u tangential velocity (m/s)
v absolute velocity (m/s)
w relative velocity (m/s)
α angle between absolute and
tangential velocities (◦ )
β angle between relative and
tangential velocities (◦ )
η efficiency
ϕ angle from tongue tip (◦ )
φ = Q/(ωd 3 ) flow coefficient
ρ fluid density (kg/m3 )
ω rotational speed (rad/s)
Subscripts
1, 2 magnitude at impeller inlet or outlet
m meridian component of velocity
u tangential component of velocity
P, T magnitude when working in pump or
turbine mode
X,Y component in the X - and Y -direction
Superscript
* non-dimensional magnitude
Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part A: J. Power and Energy