Gas–Liquid Two-Phase Performance of Centrifugal Pump Under Bubble Inflow Based on Computational Fluid Dynamics–Population Balance Model Coupling Model

Abstract In this study, a numerical simulation method based on Eulerian–Eulerian model and population balance model (PBM) (i.e., computational fluid dynamics (CFD)–PBM coupling model) was developed to investigate the gas–liquid two-phase performance of centrifugal pump under bubble inflow. The realizable k–ε model turbulence model was implemented in ansysfluent solver. The air and water were employed as the working fluids, which was consistent with the experiment. The water head and pressure increment obtained by the experiment were used to validate the numerical method. The results show that the CFD–PBM coupling model is superior to the Eulerian–Eulerian model, particularly in the “surging” conditions. Using the CFD–PBM coupling model, the influences of parameters, such as inlet gas volume fraction, liquid phase flowrate, and rotational speed, on the head and efficiency of the centrifugal pump were investigated. Under the design condition, when the inlet gas volume fraction increases from 3% to 5%, the bubbles form air mass and stagnate in the impeller channel. The stagnated air mass can hardly be discharged with the liquid phase. Thus, the pump head drops suddenly, i.e., the surging occurs. The two-phase performance of centrifugal pump can be improved under the surging condition by increasing the liquid flowrate and the rotational speed to a certain value. The results contribute to an alternative simulation method to investigate the characteristics of bubble flow in pump and shed new lights on the understanding of the performance of centrifugal pumps under two-phase flow conditions.