Numerical Study of Unsteady Flow in a Centrifugal Pump

Kitano Majidi
Technische Universitaet Berlin, Carnotstr. 1A, D-10587, Germany e-mail: kitano.majidi@tu-berlin.de

Computational uid dynamics (CFD) analysis has been used to solve the unsteady threedimensional viscous ow in the entire impeller and volute casing of a centrifugal pump. The results of the calculations are used to predict the impeller/volute interaction and to obtain the unsteady pressure distribution in the impeller and volute casing. The calculated unsteady pressure distribution is used to determine the unsteady blade loading. The calculations at the design point and at two off-design points are carried out with a multiple frame of reference and a sliding mesh technique is applied to consider the impeller/volute interaction. The results obtained show that the ow in the impeller and volute casing is periodically unsteady and conrm the circumferential distortion of the pressure distribution at the impeller outlet and in the volute casing. Due to the interaction between impeller blades and the tongue of the volute casing the ow is characterized by pressure uctuations, which are strong at the impeller outlet and in the vicinity of the tongue. These pressure uctuations are died away in the casing as the advancement angle increases. These reduced pressure uctuations are spread to the discharge nozzle; the pressure uctuations are also reected to the impeller inlet and they affect the mass ow rate through the blade passages. DOI: 10.1115/1.1776587

Introduction
Single-stage centrifugal turbo-machines are mostly designed with a spiral volute casing. The asymmetric shape of the spiral volute and tongue results in a circumferential distortion of the ow conditions at the outlet of the impeller. This distortion is especially pronounced at off-design points. The circumferential non-uniformity of the pressure eld causes unbalanced radial forces that must be considered by designing rotor-bearing systems. Due to the relative movement between impeller and volute casing the ow at the outlet of the impeller is strongly interacting with the volute ow. The unsteady interaction between these components generates pressure uctuations, which are responsible for unsteady dynamic forces. These unsteady dynamic forces give rise to vibration of the pump components and generate hydraulic noises. The physics of the hydrodynamic forces and the reasons of the vibration and noise generation are extensively reported in 1 . Considerable attention has already been focused to study the unsteady interaction in centrifugal turbomachines. Both experimental and numerical approaches have contributed to the understanding of the complex ow uctuations due to the unsteady interaction. There are numerous examples of the experimental investigations of which Arndt et al. 2 , Kaupert and Staubli 3 , and Hagelstein et al. 4 are a representative sample. In addition, some numerical studies have been undertaken to capture the unsteady interaction and to predict the pressure uctuations. Some of the studies, e.g., Hillewaert and Van den Braembussche 5 , consider the ow as inviscid and some authors, e.g., Longatte and Kueny 6 , use a two-dimensional model. In recent years, improved computational algorithms as well as hardware development have contributed to enhance CFD capability. It is now feasible to use CFD codes for a realistic prediction of the complex three-dimensional turbulent ow in the entire pump and perform unsteady calcula tions see, for example, Zhang et al. 7 and Gonzalez et al. 8,9 . However, the knowledge about the unsteady pressure uctuations and the unsteady blade loading is still not satisfying. Furthermore,
Contributed by the International Gas Turbine Institute IGTI of THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS for publication in the ASME JOURNAL OF TURBOMACHINERY. Paper presented at the International Gas Turbine and Aeroengine Congress and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria, June 1317, 2004, Paper No. 2004-GT-54099. Manuscript received by IGTI, October 1, 2003; nal revision, March 1, 2004. IGTI Review Chair: A. J. Strazisar.

the design of the centrifugal pumps has already reached a level that only through a detailed understanding of the internal ow an increase of the overall performance can be achieved. Due to the curved passages inside the impeller and the volute the ow is to be considered as three-dimensional. Additionally, since the ow following blade passages as well as the volute casing interacts with viscous boundary layers, secondary ows are generated. Therefore, a correct simulation of the impeller/volute interaction requires the simultaneous solution of the three-dimensional unsteady Navier-Stokes equations in both the impeller and volute.

Centrifugal Pump and Test Conditions

The impeller considered in this study is a commercial one. It is shrouded and has ve backswept blades. The blade prole varies between the hub and the shroud. The blade angle at the inlet varies from 18.5 deg from tangential at the shroud to 30.0 deg at the hub. The blade angle at the outlet is 23.5 deg. The single volute casing is unvaned. The shape of the single volute casing is designed according to the theory of a constant average velocity for all sections of the volute Stepanoff, 10 . The main dimensions and characteristic of the investigated pump and the test conditions for this study are presented in Table 1.

Numerical Model and Computational Methods

The numerical simulations have been carried out using the commercial code CFX-TASCow. The ow solver of the code employs for incompressible turbulent ow the continuity equation and the three-dimensional time-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. In this study, the eddy-viscosity assumption is used to model the Reynolds stresses. The eddy viscosity is determined by means of the Standard k- turbulence model. The walls are modeled using a log-law wall function. The transport equations are discretized using an element based conservative nite volume method. The numerical calculations are carried out with a multiple frame of reference approach, whereby the impeller ow eld is solved in a rotating frame and the casing in a xed one. The grid for these two frames of reference should be generated separately. The employed code requires provision of structured or blockstructured grids. Figure 1 shows the computational grids used to model the impeller and the volute. Both of the grids are block structured. The grid of the impeller models all impeller blades and passages. In order to enhance a fully developed ow before enterAPRIL 2005, Vol. 127 363

Journal of Turbomachinery

Copyright 2005 by ASME

Table 1 Main characteristics of the investigated pump Impeller: d 2 508 mm b 2 72.5 mm Volute Casing: d 3 523 mm b 3 94.3 mm Design Point: m opt 730.0 kg/s H 46.68 m n 1482 rpm N s 68 min 1 Test Conditions: 1 Mass ow rate 730.0 kg/s 2 Mass ow rate 541.04 kg/s 3 Mass ow rate 978.2 kg/s Impeller outlet diameter Impeller outlet passage width Base circle diameter Volute width at the base circle Mass ow rate Total head Rotational speed Specic speed (m /m opt 1) (m /m opt 0.74) (m /m opt 1.34)

ing the impeller, some part of the suction nozzle is also modeled. Therefore, the inlet surface of the impeller was extended upstream of the physical inlet region of the blades. The grid of the impeller is generated in 16 blocks, i.e., one block for the suction nozzle, ve blocks for the inlet region, one block for each of the ve impeller passages and each of the regions connecting blade passages with the inlet surface of the volute. All of these sub grids are pinched H-grids. The grid for the impeller has 476,568 nodes. The blades are dened as solid bodies, therefore only 76% of the nodes are active nodes. The grid of the casing is generated in two blocks, one for the volute casing and one for the discharge nozzle, and has 356,664 nodes. As already mentioned the numerical calculations are carried out with a multiple frame of reference. The two frames of reference are connected in such a way that for steady state calculations the relative position of the impeller and casing does not change through the calculations, i.e., that the grids of the impeller and the casing are connected by means of a frozen-rotor interface. For unsteady calculations the grids are connected by means of a rotor/

stator interface, i.e., that they change their relative position through the calculation according to the angular velocity of the impeller. The reference change occurs as the ow crosses the interfaces; the appropriate transformation occurs across the interface without any interface averaging. The rotor/stator approach accounts for the interaction between two frames. For the steady-state calculations the following boundary conditions are assumed: At the inlet of the computational domain the mass ow rate, the turbulence intensity, the eddy length scale and a reference pressure at one grid point are specied. It is assumed, that the absolute velocity vectors at the inlet are perpendicular to the inlet grid surface and point into axial direction. The turbulent intensity was assumed to be 5%. Furthermore, the eddy length scale was assumed to be 10% of the diameter at the inlet plane. At the outlet for all variables with exception of pressure a zerogradient condition was assumed. Both in the xed frame and in the rotating frame the solid walls, i.e., the impeller blades, hub and shroud, the casing walls and the walls of the suction nozzles, are modeled using a no-slip boundary condition. For unsteady calculations in a previous study, the same boundary conditions as for the steady state calculations were assumed. The results are published in 11 . Some authors, e.g., Gonzalez et al. 9 and Longatte and Kueny 6 , suggested that the assumption of a xed mass ow rate at the inlet of the computational domain is physically unsuitable for unsteady calculations and in particular for considering the rotor/stator interaction. Therefore, in the present study for unsteady calculations the following boundary conditions are used: instead of a xed mass ow rate at the inlet the total absolute pressure, and at the outlet the static pressure in a single grid face are specied. The time step of the unsteady calculations has been set to 2.0243* 10 4 seconds. This time step is related to the rotational speed of the impeller and is chosen in such a way that one complete impeller revolution is performed after each 200 time steps. The chosen time step is small enough to get the necessary time resolution. The number of iterations in each time step has been set to 4. This number of iterations is in most cases sufcient to reduce the maximum residuals by three orders of magnitude. The average values of residuals rms values reduce by four orders of magnitude. All parameter settings, for example the time step and the number of iterations in each time step, have been retained unchanged for all test conditions. The calculations are carried out for four and half impeller revolutions, i.e., for 900 time steps, at the design pointtest condition 1as well as for ve impeller revolutions, i.e., for 1000 time steps, at both off-design pointstest conditions 2 and 3. At each test condition at rst a steady-state calculation is carried out and the result is used to initialize the unsteady calculation at this test point.

Results and Discussions

The results of the unsteady calculations are discussed for different nodal points which are shown in Fig. 2 the nodal points are shown exaggeratedly big in order to distinguish them . The nodal points are selected in one blade passage passage 3 and in the volute casing and in the discharge nozzle of the casing. In the blade passage the points 1PM, 2PM, 1SM, and 2SM are located at midspan of the passage, whereby the points 1PM and 2PM are located at the blade pressure side at the inlet and outlet of the blade passage respectively. The points 1SM and 2SM are located at the suction side ( P stands for pressure side, S for suction side, and M for midspan). The nodal points 1VM and 2VM are located in volute midspan at different angular advancements , measured from the volute tongue. The nodal points 1TM and 2TM are located directly at the tongue at midspan of the volute casing, whereby the point 1TM is located at the impeller side of the tongue at 0) and the point 2TM is located at the discharge nozzle side of the tongue. The points 1DM and 2DM are located respectively at begin and end of the discharge nozzle at midspan Transactions of the ASME

Fig. 1 Grids of the computational domain

364 Vol. 127, APRIL 2005

Fig. 2 Location of the investigated nodal points, as well as the relative position of the impeller and volute casing at time0 starting the unsteady calculations, initiated from steady-state solutions

of the casing. Furthermore, Fig. 2 shows the relative position of the impeller and casing for steady state calculations as well as at time 0 of unsteady calculations. Unsteadiness Inside the Impeller. In Fig. 3, the time histories of the pressure coefcient Cp at the investigated nodal points inside the blade passage are shown, where the time-average of the computed mass ow rate closely captures the design mass ow rate. By the set of boundary conditions used in the present approach, i.e., total pressure at the inlet of the computational domain and the static pressure at a single grid face at the outlet, the design mass ow rate can only roughly be adjusted. For the results presented here, a time-average value of 734.1 kg/s (m /m opt 1.005)
Fig. 4 Unsteady pressure distribution at midspan of the blade passage at m m opt0.74

has been computed. The static pressure is normalized using a dynamic pressure based on the impeller outlet tip velocity: Cp p p ref 0.5 u 2 2 . (1)

Fig. 3 Unsteady pressure distribution at midspan of the blade passage at m m opt1.0

Fig. 5 Unsteady pressure distribution at midspan of the blade passage at m m opt1.34

Journal of Turbomachinery

APRIL 2005, Vol. 127 365

Fig. 6 Unsteady mass ow rate through each blade passage at m m opt0.74

Fig. 8 Unsteady pressure distribution in the volute casing at m m opt1.0

As it can be seen in Fig. 3, the nal periodic unsteady solution is achieved after one impeller revolution, whereby each impeller revolution needs 200 time steps 40,486 ms . At the design point Fig. 3 the calculations are carried out for four and half impeller revolutions, i.e., for 900 time steps. And at both off-design points, Figs. 4 and 5, for ve impeller revolutions, i.e., for 1000 time steps. According to Fig. 3 negative Cp values at the inlet of the blade passage can be observed. A negative Cp refers to a pressure that is lower than the pressure at the reference point, which is selected at the impeller eye. Furthermore, at the inlet of the blade passage in the immediate vicinity of the leading edge, a pressure surplus on

the suction side nodal point 1SM compared to the corresponding values on pressure side nodal point 1PM can be observed. This result indicates a negative blade incidence, which is actually typical for mass ow rates in excess of the design mass ow rate. Indeed, as already mentioned, the mass ow rate exceeds marginally the design mass ow rate.

Fig. 7 Unsteady mass ow rate through each blade passage at m m opt1.3

Fig. 9 Unsteady pressure distribution in the volute casing at m m opt0.74

366 Vol. 127, APRIL 2005

Transactions of the ASME

Fig. 10 Unsteady pressure distribution in the volute casing at m m opt1.34

Figures 4 and 5 show the time histories of the pressure coefcients in the blade passage at off-design points m /m opt 0.74 and m /m opt 1.34, respectively. The phenomenon in Fig. 3a nega tive blade incidencecan also be observed in Fig. 5, but much more intensely. According to Fig. 4, representing a part load operation point, at the inlet of the blade passage the pressure at the nodal point 1PM is higher than at the suction side nodal point 1SM. Considering Figs. 35, it can be seen that the amplitude of the pressure uctuations within the impeller passage grows in magni-

Fig. 12 Unsteady pressure distribution at the tongue of the casing at m m opt0.74

tude as the trailing edge of the blade is approached. The Comparison of Fig. 3 with Figs. 4 and 5, shows that the amplitudes of the pressure uctuations at off-design points are considerably larger than the amplitudes at the design point. However, the amplitude of the pressure uctuations at a mass ow rate higher than the design

Fig. 11 Unsteady pressure distribution at the tongue of the casing at m m opt1.0

Fig. 13 Unsteady pressure distribution at the tongue of the casing at m m opt1.34

Journal of Turbomachinery

APRIL 2005, Vol. 127 367

Fig. 14 Pressure distribution at midspan of the pump a, pressure distribution b, and secondary ow c in the crosssectional plane of the volute casing at angular advancement 60 deg at three different time steps at off-design point m m opt0.74, 13

point is obviously more critical. Comparing the pressure uctuations at the pressure side nodal points 1PM and 2PM to suction side nodal points 1SMand 2SM reveals that in all operating points the amplitude of the pressure uctuations on the pressure side of the blade passage is larger than on the suction side. Since the ow is incompressible, strong pressure uctuations at the impeller outlet caused by the interaction between the blades and tongue of the volute casing, are reected upstream to the impeller inlet see the pressure distribution for nodal points 1PM, 1SM . Thus, pressure uctuations at the impeller inlet inuence the mass ow rate through the blade passages, as it can be seen from Figs. 6 and 7. According to these Figs. the mass ow rate 368 Vol. 127, APRIL 2005

through each blade passage varies with time according to the relative position of the blade passage to the tongue of the volute casing. The periodic pressure distribution at the impeller-inlet and outlet leads to a periodic ow, which results in a cyclic acceleration and deceleration of the uid ow inside each blade passage. At the upper part of Fig. 7, the relative position of the passage 1 to the tongue of the volute casing at time step zero as well as exemplary at the begin and at the end of one deceleration and one acceleration-phase are shown; they are linked to the corresponding points of the graph for passage 1. Deviations of the exact repeatability in Figs. 6 and 7 are partly numerical. However, also in a real pump an exact repeatability of mass ow rates through Transactions of the ASME

Fig. 15 Pressure distribution a and secondary ow b in the cross-sectional plane of the volute casing at angular advancement 260 deg at three different time steps at off-design point m m opt0.74

each blade passage at every impeller revolution can not be achieved, since the initial values at each impeller revolution vary slightly. Unsteadiness Inside the Volute-Casing. The time histories of the pressure coefcient Cp at the investigated nodal points in the volute casing and at the tongue of the casing are shown in Figs. 813, where both design and off-design points are taken into account. By Considering Figs. 810 it is evident, that pressure uctuations assume most pronounced intensities in points located closest to the tongue, e.g., points 1VM, 1 TM. The amplitude of these pressure uctuations die away with advancement of 2VM , but is still signicant at the discharge nozzle 1DM . At the outlet of the discharge nozzle 2DM the pressure uctuations have almost vanished. Journal of Turbomachinery

According to Figs. 1113, the pressure uctuations at the impeller side of the tongue, nodal point 1TM, are strong and have large amplitudes. At the discharge side of the tongue at nodal point 2TM these pressure uctuations have died away and thus, the amplitudes of the uctuations are considerably smaller. Contour Plots at Various Instances. The unsteady calculations capture the interaction between the tongue and the blades. Figure 14 a shows the contour plots of the pressure coefcient at the midspan of the impeller at three different time steps. According to this gure the tongue and the blades are interacting strongly. As each blade approaches the tongue, very strong pressure uctuations in the vicinity of the tongue can be observed. These pressure uctuations are propagated in the volute and are spread to the discharge nozzle. The uctuations are also reected APRIL 2005, Vol. 127 369

F normalized

F radial 0.5 u 2 d 2 b 2 2

(2)

where means the density of the uid, d 2 is the impeller diameter, and b 2 is the width of the impeller at the outlet. Applying Eq. 2 to different test conditions, blade loading appears to assumeas expectedmuch larger values at off-design conditions 1.3 and 0.74 mass ow ratios . According to Fig. 16, at off design pointsspecially at 1.3 mass ow ratiothe amplitudes of the uctuations due to ow unsteadiness are equal to the average net blade loading values. This unsteady blade loading gives rise to dynamic effects, which are one of the most important reasons of vibration and hydraulic noises. In order to appraise the virtue of the present unsteady computational approach with semi-empirical correlation given by Stepanoff 10 may be used. Stepanoff has suggested that the radial thrust due to due to the nonuniformity of the circumferential pressure distribution is a function of total head, H, impeller diameter, d 2 , impeller width, b 2 , and an experimental coefcient K r
Fig. 16 Unsteady blade loading at different test conditions

F radial

Stepanoff

K r gHd 2 b 2 .

(3)

The coefcient K r depends on the operating point and reaches its maximum at shutoff: in the impeller and are spread to the inlet region. Part (b) of this gure shows the distribution of the pressure coefcient at the cross-sectional plane of the volute casing at the advancement 60 deg at the same time steps as in part (a). In order to angle distinguish the pressure uctuations, the minimum and maximum values of the color scale of contours remain in all the time steps the same. It means contour level scales are consistent between all time steps. It is to distinguish that at different time steps the pressure uctuates strongly colors vary strongly , but the pressure gradients in the cross-sectional plane remain in all time steps almost the same, at all the time steps there are two pronounced minimum value regions in the pressure distribution of the crosssectional plane. These pressure gradients are arising from the passage curvature centrifugal forces and they are in combination with boundary layers responsible for the secondary ows in the volute casing. Since these pressure gradients do not vary with time, the secondary ow, shown in part (c) of Fig. 14, does not vary too. The secondary vectors are the projections of the calculated velocity vectors onto the investigated cross-sectional plane. The centers of the vortices of the secondary ow in part (c) correspond to the two pronounced minimum value regions in part (b) of the gure. The high velocity core in the cross section is driven by the impeller. In Fig. 15, the pressure coefcient as well as secondary ow velocity vectors are depicted in a cross-sectional plane of the casing at an angular advancement of 260 deg. By considering Fig. 15, it is obvious that pressure uctuations die away with increasing angular advancement the colors remain in all time steps almost unchanged . In this cross-sectional plane only one decit region can be observed and correspondingly the secondary ow has only one vortex. As already mentioned, the secondary ows are caused by pressure gradients perpendicular to the ow direction, whereby the pressure gradients depend on the passage curvature; they vary according to the shape of the cross-sectional plane and according to the local radius of the spiral volute see, for example 12 . Blade Loading Results. Using the calculated pressure distribution in the impeller, the magnitude of blade loading can be estimated. To calculate the blade loading the static pressure was integrated over the entire surface of the blades. The unsteady pressure distribution results in an unsteady blade loading, which is shown in Fig. 16. The blade loading is normalized using the following equation: 370 Vol. 127, APRIL 2005 Kr 0.360.6 1 m m opt
2

(4)

Comparing normalized time-averaged loading values Fig. 16 , numerical calculations appear to be less responsive to off-design conditions. On the other hand, the coefcient in Eq. 4 is more or less uncertain in the setup considered here.

Conclusion
The results obtained show that the ow eld in the impeller and volute casing of centrifugal pumps is periodically unsteady. It was conrmed that due to the interaction between impeller and volute casing the ow is characterized with pressure uctuations, which are strong at impeller outlet and at the vicinity of the tongue. The large amplitudes of the pressure uctuations at impeller outlet and in tongue region die away in the casing as the advancement angle increases. These reduced pressure uctuations are spread to the discharge nozzle and are reected to the impeller inlet. Using the unsteady pressure distribution inside the impeller, unsteady blade loading, which is one of the most important reasons of vibration, was calculated. The comparison of the numerical results obtained in this study with the published experimental results show a qualitative good agreement of the results considering the behavior of the unsteady pressure uctuations.

Nomenclature
b2 Cp d2 F radial p u2 outlet passage width of the impeller pressure coefcient outlet diameter of the impeller radial force blade loading pressure impeller outlet tip velocity density

References
1 Gulich, J. F., 1999, Kreiselpumpen, Ein Handbuch fur Entwicklung, Anlagenplanung und Betrieb, Springer, Berlin. 2 Arndt, N., Acosta, A. J., Brennen, C. E., and Caghey, T. K., 1990, Experimental Investigation of Rotor-Stator Interaction in a Centrifugal Pump With Several Vaned Diffusers, ASME J. Turbomach., 112, pp. 98 107. 3 Kaupert, K. A., and Staubli, T., 1999, The Unsteady Pressure Field in a High

Transactions of the ASME

6 7

Specic Speed Centrifugal Pump ImpellerPart I: Inuence of the Volute, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 121, pp. 621 629. Hagelstein, D., Hillewaert, K., Van den Braembussche, R. A., Engeda, A., Keiper, R., and Rautenberg, M., 2000, Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Flow in a Centrifugal Compressor Volute, ASME J. Turbomach., 122, pp. 2231. Hillewaert, K., and Van den Braembussche, R. A., 1999, Numerical Simulation of Impeller-Volute Interaction in Centrifugal Compressors, ASME J. Turbomach., 121, pp. 603 608. Longatte, F., and Kueny, J. L., 1999, Analysis of Rotor-Stator-Circuit Interactions in a Centrifugal Pump, ASME Paper FEDSM99-6866. Zhang, M., Wang, H., and Tsukamoto, H., 2002, Numerical Analysis of Unsteady Hydrodynamic forces on a Diffuser Pump Impeller due to Rotor-Stator Interaction, ASME Paper FEDSM2002-31181. Gonzalez, J., Fernandez, J., Blanco, E., and Santolaria, C., 2002, Numerical Simulation of the Dynamic Effects Due to Impeller-Volute Interaction in a

Centrifugal Pump, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 124, pp. 348 355. 9 Gonzalez, J., Santolaria, C., Blanco, E., and Fernandez, J., 2002, Unsteady Flow Structure on a Centrifugal Pump: Experimental and Numerical Approaches, ASME Paper FEDSM2002-31182. 10 Stepanoff, A. J., 1957, Centrifugal and Axial Flow Pumps, Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, FL. 11 Majidi, K., 2003, Numerical Calculation of Impeller/Volute Interaction in a Centrifugal Pump, Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Turbomachinery Fluid Dynamics and Thermodynamics, pp. 597 606. 12 Majidi, K., and Siekmann, H. E., 2000, Numerical Calculation of Secondary Flow in Pump Volute and Circular Casing Using 3D Viscous Flow Techniques, Int. J. Rotating Machinery, 6 4 , pp. 245252. 13 Majidi, K., 2004, Unsteady Radial Thrust of a Centrifugal Pump due to the Impeller/Volute Interaction, Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Transport Phenomena and Dynamics of Rotating Machinery, Pacic Center of Thermal-Fluids Engineering, Paper ISROMAC10-2004-032.

Journal of Turbomachinery

APRIL 2005, Vol. 127 371