Experimental Investigation of a Centrifugal Pump Working Under Gas-Liquid Two Phase Flow Condition

The centrifugal pump operation under gas-liquid two phase flow condition is a common problem in the oil and gas industry. Same problem is encountered in electrical submersible pumps. Moreover in the loss of coolant accidents (LOCA) the water in the pressurized water reactor flashes into steam and pump is operated in steam-water two phase flow condition. The performance of the centrifugal pump is found to be decreased under gas-liquid two phase flow condition. However, the limited literatures are available for the study. In this scenario, this paper presents the experimental work to investigate the performance of centrifugal pump operated in gas-liquid two phase flow condition. The performance of pump working in water phase flow condition is analyzed at different rotational speed to validate the result with standard performance characteristics. Then experiments are performed by introducing the air at inlet of a pump. The performance of a pump working under air-water flow condition is found to be deteriorated continuously from part load to overload operating condition. Keywords—Centrifugal pump; single phase flow; two phase flow; performance.