Influence of eccentric impeller on pressure pulsation of large-scale vaned-voluted centrifugal pump

Large-scale vaned-voluted centrifugal pump is a key component in water conveyance engineering. Hydraulic performance and pressure pulsation are important assessment indicators for operation efficiency and stability. During the common operation, the impeller eccentricity is easy to occur due to installation error, radial force and other reasons, which results the changes of hydraulic performance and pressure pulsation. In this study, the hydraulic performance and pressure pulsation in the vaneless region are analyzed by computational fluid dynamics method. The influence of eccentric impeller on the hydraulic performance in each components and the pressure pulsation is studied. Results show that the eccentric impeller causes the increasing of hydraulic dissipation especially in the volute. However, decreasing of the hydraulic dissipation happens in the draft tube. Impeller eccentricity significantly enhances the amplitude of rotation frequency, but has no obvious effect on the blade passing frequency and its harmonics. The peak-peak value of pressure pulsation of eccentric impeller increases rapidly with the eccentricity ratio. The results of this study provide scientific support for solving the stability problem caused by eccentric impeller in engineering cases.