Blade Thickness Redesign to Improve Efficiency and Decrease Unsteady Pressure Pulsation of a Low Specific Speed Centrifugal Pump

The existence of secondary flow in the impeller brings extra energy loss and aggravates the pressure pulsation which will worsen the hydraulic and dynamic performance of the pump. In this paper, based on the forces balance in the direction perpendicular to the streamline, an optimal design method for the blade thickness of a low specific speed centrifugal pump is proposed to suppress the secondary flow in the impeller. The origin impellers with 5 and 7 cylinder blades are redesigned and the hydraulic and dynamic performance of the model pump are investigated by numerical simulation and experimental. Results show that the blade modification proposed in this paper can effectively improve the efficiency of the model pump and reduce the internal pressure pulsations. The internal flow analysis shows that the performance improvement attributes to the suppression of secondary flow in the impeller. And the entropy generation rate is introduced to measure and locate the loss in the pump. Results show that on the one hand, the suppression of secondary flow can reduce the energy loss in the pump and improve the efficiency; on the other hand, it can repress the jet wake structure at impeller outlet and alleviate the intensity of pressure pulsations.