Title
Studying the Impact of Diffuser Return Guide Vanes on the Energy Performance of a Multistage Centrifugal Pump
Authors
[ 1 ] Instytut Konstrukcji Maszyn, Wydział Inżynierii Mechanicznej, Politechnika Poznańska | [ P ] employee
Scientific discipline (Law 2.0)
Year of publication
2024
Published in
Article type
scientific article
Publication language
english
Keywords
EN
- centrifugal pump
- return guide vanes (RGVs)
- computational fluid dynamic (CFD)
Abstract
EN The head, efficiency, and cavitation characteristics of centrifugal pumps are highly dependent on the velocity field in front of the impeller inlet. In multistage pumps, the velocity field in front of the second and each subsequent stage is determined by the shape (design) of the diffuser return guide vanes. This current work presents the results obtained by performing a numerical study using ANSYS CFX 14.0 to determine the impact of the shape (design) of diffuser return guide vanes on the head and coefficient of efficiency of one stage of a multistage centrifugal pump. Three RGVs with different Outlet angles are studied: 𝛼6 —original RGV with 𝛼6=90 deg , RGV1 with 𝛼6=110 deg and RGV2 with 𝛼6=128 deg . The results obtained after performing CFD modeling indicate that with one of the studied RGVs, the pump stage head increases by nearly 20%, while the hydraulic coefficient of efficiency remains almost constant. Applying entropy production theory is used to determine the impact of the various components of entropy production on the total head loss in the studied pump stage. The impact of the Outlet angle of the RGV on the velocity field of the flow in front of the next impeller (stage) as well as the RGV head is also analyzed. The numerical results of the original RGV are compared with the experimental data obtained from large-scale studies of pumps performed at the Laboratory of Hydraulic Machines of the University “Angel Kanchev” of Ruse, Bulgaria. When using the modified RGVs, the head curve of the original pump can be obtained by operating at a lower speed or with a smaller impeller diameter. This may lead to an overall increase in the energy efficiency of the machine, which could be explored as a future task.
Pages (from - to)
10991-1 - 10991-21
Comments
Article number: 10991
License type
CC BY (attribution alone)
Open Access Mode
open journal
Open Access Text Version
final published version
Date of Open Access to the publication
at the time of publication
Full text of article
Access level to full text
public
Ministry points / journal
100
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