Research on performance of centrifugal pump with different-type open impeller

To investigate the influence of impeller type on the performance and inner flow of centrifugal pump, the numerical simulation and experimental research were carried out on the same centrifugal pump with straight-blade and curved-blade open impeller. Based on SIMPLEC algorithm, time-averaged N-S equation and the standard k-ɛ turbulence model, the numerical results are obtained. The pressure distribution in the different type impellers is uniform, while the low pressure area in straight-blade inlet is larger. The vortexes in the passage of impeller exist in both cases. Relative to curved-blade impeller, there are larger vortexes in most of the flow passages except the passage near the tongue in straight-blade impeller. Also some small backflow regions are found at the blade inlet of two impellers. The characteristic curves achieved by numerical simulation basically agree with those by experiment, and straight-blade open impeller centrifugal pump has a better hydraulic performance.