Experimental test and theoretical modeling on the working characteristics of spherical water pump

This paper investigates working characteristics of a spherical water pump through the experimental test and theoretical modeling. Both theoretical models of displacement and the real time delivered flow are established precisely based on the working principles of spherical pump, under spherical and polar coordinate systems, to investigate the effects structural parameters on flow characteristics. A test rig is established to investigate and validate the working characteristics of spherical pump. Performance such as leakage characteristics, flow characteristics, power consumption and noise radiation are tested, and the theoretical models are validated under multiple working conditions. Results indicate the proposed models are effective to characterize the working properties of spherical water pump, which also demonstrates reasonable performance on the power consumption and noise radiation characteristics. These studies provide fundamental principles for abiding in designing the high-performance spherical water pump.