Effects of Splitter Vanes on the Performance and Pressure Pulsation in a Centrifugal Pump

Abstract

Two types of arrangement of splitter vanes at the outlet of a centrifugal impeller is proposed in this paper, that is, staggered vanes and splitter vanes. By means of CFD, the effects of different vanes arrangement schemes on the performance and pressure fluctuation characteristics of the centrifugal pump are compared. The influence mechanism of different schemes is explored based on the fluid flow field analysis. The results show that, compared with ordinary impellers, when the short vanes are 10 degree offset to the suction side of the main vanes, staggered vanes impellers cause the pump head and efficiency to decrease, while the amplitude of pressure pulsation at blade passing frequency (BPF) is reduced by 28% compared with that of the ordinary impeller under the design condition. In the splitter vanes scheme, the pump head and efficiency increased, however the efficiency increased more significantly under the large flow rate condition. The amplitude of pressure fluctuation at BPF is decreased by 14% compared with that of the ordinary impeller under the design condition. The existence of short vanes in both schemes changes the wake flow structure downstream the impeller vanes and tends to weaken the pressure pulsation induced by the rotor-stator interaction (RSI) phenomenon. The results can provide a reference for optimized design of the low vibration and less noisy pumps.