Numerical studies in a centrifugal pump with the improved blade considering cavitation

In this paper, a centrifugal pump with the improved blade for cavitation is studied numerically. A 3D impeller with logarithmic spiral blade profile was designed by the in-house hydraulic design code using a centrifugal pump geometric parameters, and the blade profile curve of suction side on the designed impeller is replaced by a combination of tangent line and circle arc line. The cavitation flows in the centrifugal pump with designed impeller, modified impeller and centrifugal pump spectrum impeller are respectively calculated by two-phase CFD simulation at three flow rates. The tests of the centrifugal pump have been conducted to verify numerical simulation. The effects of designed impeller and modified impeller on hydraulic efficiency, critical cavitation number, cavitation length, head drop performance and vapor cavity distribution in impeller are investigated. The results show that the modification of blade profile curve of suction side can improve the cavitation performance of an impeller and hydraulic efficiency of centrifugal pump. Compared with designed impeller, the critical cavitation number of centrifugal pump with modified impeller decrease by 26.5% under the same flow rate coefficient, and the cavitation intensity in the modified impeller is weakened effectively. The hydraulic efficiency of modified impeller also increases by 4.9%.