Origins of hydrodynamic forces on centrifugal pump impellers
Abstract
Hydrodynamic interactions that occur between a centrifugal pump impeller and volute are experimentally and theoretically investigated. The theoretical analysis considers the inability of the blades to perfectly guide the flow through the impeller, and also includes a quasi-one dimensional treatment of the flow in the volute. The disturbance at the impeller discharge and the resulting forces are determined by the theoretical model. The model is then extended to obtain the hydrodynamic force perturbations that are caused by the impeller whirling eccentrically in the volute. Under many operating conditions, these force perturbations were found to be destablizing. Comparisons are made between the theoretical model and the experimental measurements of pressure distributions and radial forces on the impeller. The theoretical model yields fairly accurate predictions of the radial forces caused by the flow through the impeller. However, it was found that the pressure acting on the front shroud of the impeller has a substantial effect on the destablizing hydrodynamic forces.
Additional Information
This research was funded by NASA George Marshal Spaced Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama under contract NAS 8-33108. Both of the authors express thei gratitude to A.J. Acosta and T.K. Caughey for their helpful advice, and R. Franz and N. Arndt for their assistance with the experiments. One of the authors (D.R. ADkins) would also like to thank the Shell Companies Foundation for a fellowship that supported his graduate studies and Susan Berkley for her invavluable help in preparing this paper.Files
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 1403
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:ADK074
- Created
-
2006-01-17Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2019-10-02Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Series Name
- NASA Conference Publications
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- CP 244