Numerical prediction of passive speed and performance for multistage pump without power drive in natural flow process

Abstract

With the development of engineering applications and the increase in system complexity, some particular fields, such as liquid rocket engine turbopumps, aircraft engine fuel systems, and marine natural flow cooling systems, are increasingly focusing on the performance characteristics of pumps under natural flow conditions. The pump is in the form of resistance components under natural flow conditions without a power drive. The impeller undergoes passive rotation by the impact of inlet flow. Due to the specificity of its operating conditions and performance indicators, the pump's natural flow performance cannot be evaluated by regular methods. Therefore, this paper proposed a numerical prediction method for pump natural flow performance based on a coupled computational fluid dynamics coupled with six-degrees-of freedom model. The performance of a multistage pump with guide vanes was evaluated under different natural flow conditions, and the accuracy was verified by experimental measurements. The transient variation mode of pump performance parameters with time at the initial stage of natural flow impact was analyzed. The flow field's transient evolution characteristics and the wall shear stress variation during natural flow were investigated. It was found that the impeller's passive rotational speed increases linearly with the natural flow rate, while the hydraulic loss shows an exponentially increasing trend. Meanwhile, the natural flow loss coefficient shows an exponentially decreasing trend and gradually tends to a stable value. The high turbulent kinetic energy inside the impeller is mainly distributed in the flow separation region and large velocity gradients. The distribution of shear stresses is closely related to the flow behavior inside the pump and the geometrical features of the hydraulic components.