Design of a Turbopiston Pump Guided by Computational Analysis

Abstract

An innovative pump, TurboPiston Pump (TPP), has been invented to incorporate the merits of centrifugal, axial, and positive displacement pumps. The TPP is designed to deliver large flow rates with a potential at high pressure of up to 1000 psia with one stage. To improve the original design, an understanding of the flow behavior inside the pump is needed. The objective of this study is to simulate the flow field inside the pump and study its performance to guide the design process. This study includes modeling the pump with the transient sliding mesh scheme using a commercial computational fluid dynamics solver, ANSYS/FLUENT. The flow pattern, static pressure distribution, and total pressure losses are calculated and analyzed. The regions of high total pressure losses and potential creation of cavitation are identified. A plastic demonstration model and a metal prototype have been fabricated based on the result of the CFD analyis.