Investigations on affinity law under gas–liquid conditions in multistage radial and mixed-flow multiphase pumps

Abstract

Affinity laws have been widely used in pump design and simulation under high-temperature and corrosive conditions. By applying such laws, it is possible to shorten development cycles and reduce test costs. However, current applications of affinity laws are still limited to liquid conditions. In this paper, expressions for affinity laws and their applicability are investigated for multistage radial and mixed-flow multiphase pumps under gas–liquid conditions. A high-pressure (30 MPa) gas–liquid experimental platform is constructed, and three-stage and 25-stage radial pumps and a 15-stage mixed-flow pump are investigated, with specific speeds of 107 and 216. With gas compressibility taken into account, the gas–liquid two-phase flow rate, head, and power, and the corresponding dimensionless hydraulic coefficients, are defined for multiphase pumps. The deterioration of gas–liquid pressurization performance is found to be divided into three processes with different dynamic mechanisms, corresponding to three flow patterns. The inlet gas volume fraction of pump is used to judge dynamic similarity. At the same inlet gas volume fractions λ1 = λ2, when the gas–liquid flows in two pumps have the same flow pattern, dynamic similarity will be satisfied. The affinity law that is established shows good applicability to the three-stage radial multiphase pump, with goodness of fit R2 larger than 0.9 for the two-phase Ψm–Φm and Πm–Φm performance curves. Finally, experimental results indicate that the affinity law also has good applicability to multiphase pumps with different stage numbers and blade structures under gas–liquid conditions.