Liquid-Vapor Two-Phase Flow in Centrifugal Pump: Cavitation, Mass
Transfer, and Impeller Structure Optimization
Abstract
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been widely used to model the
internal flow field of centrifugal pumps to analyze cavitation
phenomena. However, accurate determination of cavitation in pumps
remains a challenge. In this study, liquid-vapor two-phase flow in
centrifugal pump at different conditions and impeller structural
parameters were studied numerically and experimentally. Cavitation
multiphase unsteady model was proposed to simulate the flow field in the
centrifugal pump by CFD method, and an experimental platform was set up
to obtain cavitation performance results. The simulation data were
validated with experiment and good consistency was achieved. This study
investigated the mass transfer and cavitation behavior of centrifugal
pumps under various conditions and customizes a simulation process to
obtain the optimal combination of impeller blade number, blade wrap
angle, and blade installation angle, which was expected to provide
helpful insights into the structural optimization design of centrifugal
pumps with good cavitation resistance.