Three-Dimensional Flow Simulation by a Hybrid Two-Phase Solver for the Assessment of Liquid/Gas Transport in a Volute-Type Centrifugal Pump with Twisted Blades

A hybrid two-phase flow solver is proposed, based on an Euler–Euler two-fluid model with continuous blending of a Volume-of-Fluid method when phase interfaces of coherent gas pockets are to be resolved. In a preceding study on a two-dimensional bladed research pump with reduced rotational speed, the transition from bubbly flow to coherent steady gas pockets observed in optical experiments with liquid/gas flow could be well captured by the hybrid solver. In the present study, the experiments and solver validation are extended to an industrial-scale centrifugal pump with twisted three-dimensional blades and elevated design rotational speed. The solver is combined with a population balance model, and a scale-adaptive turbulence model is employed. Compared to the two-dimensional bladed pump, the transition from agglomerated bubbles flow to attached gas pockets is shifted to larger gas loading, which is well captured by the simulation. The pump head drop with increasing gas load is also reproduced, showing the hybrid solver’s validity for realistic pump operation conditions.