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Energy Engineers, Part A: Journal of Power and
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DOI: 10.1243/0957650981536637
1998 212: 109 Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part A: Journal of Power and Energy
E S Yoon, H W Oh, M K Chung and J S Ha
Performance prediction of mixed-flow pumps

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109
Performance prediction of mixed-ow pumps
E S Yoon
1
, H W Oh
2
, M K Chung
2
and J S Ha
3
1
Department of Thermal and Fluid Systems, Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, Taejon, Korea
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Taejon, Korea
3
Hydraulic Machinery Engineering Department, Engine and Machinery Division, Hyundai Heavy Industries Company
Limited, Ulsan, Korea
Abstract: This paper presents the mean streamline analysis using the empirical loss models for performance
prediction of mixed-ow pumps with high specic speeds. A new internal loss model to describe the effect
of ow separation on the characteristic headcapacity curve with a dip in the low ow range is developed
and a modied recirculation loss model for calculation of parasitic loss due to ow recirculation at the impel-
ler exit is suggested in this study. The prediction performance of the proposed method here is tested against
four sets of measured total heads and efciencies of mixed-ow pumps, and it is also compared with that
based on two-dimensional cascade theory. Predicted results by the present set of loss models agree very
well with experimental data for a variety of mixed-ow pumps over the normal operating conditions.
Keywords: mixed-ow pumps, mean streamline analysis, loss correlations, two-dimensional cascade
theory, performance prediction
NOTATION
b impeller width
b
*
ratio of diffuser inlet width to impeller exit width
c chord
C
D
drag coefcient
C
f
skin friction coefcient
C
L
lift coefcient
D diameter
D
f
diffusion factor
D
hyd
impeller average hydraulic diameter
f loss coefcient or correction factor
g gravitational acceleration
H head (m)
h diffuser width
L
b
impeller ow length
L
v
impeller meridional length
N
s
specic speed (r/min, m
3
/min)
P power
Q volume owrate
Q

volume owrate including leakage

r radius
s pitch
U tangential impeller speed
V absolute velocity
W relative velocity
W
ui
tangential component of impeller inlet relative velo-
city
Z number of blades
a absolute ow angle from meridional direction
Dh head change (m)
clearance

wake
wake fraction of blade-to-blade space
h
p
pump efciency
n semi-cone angle
r uid density
Subscripts
0 ahead of impeller
1 impeller inlet
2 impeller exit
a annulus
act actual condition
cl clearance
diff diffusion
Euler Euler
ent entrance to impeller
h impeller hub
inc incidence
int internal condition
lk leakage
m root mean squared position or vectorial mean
mix mixing
m1m meridional direction at impeller inlet
p prole
r impeller
rc recirculation
A03997 IMechE 1998 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 212 Part A
The MS was received on 11 July 1997 and was accepted for publication on
15 January 1998.
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s secondary or diffuser
sep separation
sf skin friction
t impeller tip
u tangential direction
vd vaned diffuser
1 INTRODUCTION
Since reliable turbulence models to describe the unsteady
three-dimensional turbulent ows in rotating mixed-ow
impellers are not yet available, practical design and off-
design performance analyses of mixed-ow impellers still
depend on the conventional empirical loss correlations and
two-dimensional cascade theory. There should be a number
of prediction methods for mixed-ow pumps that have been
developed through past experiences in the industries. How-
ever, because most of the design and analysis formulae are
classied as competition sensitive by every industry, such
practical prediction methods for mixed-ow pumps have
been rarely published in the open literature.
Myles (1) suggested a blade-shape lift coefcient criter-
ion based on cascade performance data to determine
whether or not a dip will occur at low owrates in the
headcapacity characteristic curves. Sarkar (2, 3) measured
the detailed aerodynamic performance of a high specic
speed mixed-ow impeller over a wide operating range and
presented a prediction method based on two-dimensional
cascade theory. He proposed the concept of vectorial mean
velocity in a mixed-ow impeller. Jansen and Sunderland
(4) considered the backows in the impeller at low owrates
and developed a new prediction method applicable to diverse
types of pumps and operating conditions. However, their pre-
dictions of head and efciency of mixed-ow pumps were
not noticeably improved.
The present study is aimed at nding proper loss correla-
tions for more precise performance prediction of mixed-
ow pumps with a vaned diffuser. A mixed-ow pump is
assumed to consist of a centrifugal-type impeller and an
axial-type diffuser, and this paper applies a set of loss
models of centrifugal turbomachines (5) for performance
analysis of the impeller and two-dimensional cascade theory
of axial-ow turbomachines (6) to predict the performance
of the vaned diffuser.
The internal loss is broken down into seven loss mecha-
nisms, which include a separated-ow loss pertinent to the
mixed-ow impeller. Recirculation loss that occupies the
predominant portion of parasitic losses is estimated by a
new loss correlation model. The set of chosen loss correla-
tions is applied to predict the performance of four mixed-
ow pumps (hereafter referred to as HD pumps). The results
are compared with measured performance data. Detailed
specications of these HD pumps are given in Table 1,
and Fig. 1 depicts the overall meridional cross-section.
The predictions using the empirical loss models sug-
gested here are also compared with those obtained by
two-dimensional cascade theory.
2 INTERNAL LOSS ANALYSIS
2.1 Modication of the slip factor
For centrifugal turbomachines, the slip phenomenon at the
impeller outlet is due to the relative eddies of largest scale
in the impeller blade passage. For mixed-ow impellers
having a conical ow path, which is different from that of
centrifugal impellers, the relative eddies can be resolved
into two components, parallel and normal to the meridional
surface. The normal component is responsible for generat-
ing the Coriolis forces and it also produces the slip phenom-
enon (7). In this study, such Coriolis effects (3) on the slip
factor are accounted for by multiplying sin n with that of
centrifugal machines; i.e. the slip velocity generated at the
mixed-ow impeller outlet, V
SLmixed
, is estimated from
the following equation:
V
SLmixed
V
SLcent
sin n 1
A03997 IMechE 1998 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 212 Part A
Table 1 Specications of HD pumps
Impeller Vaned diffuser
Pump Parameter Inlet Outlet Inlet Outlet Z
r
Z
s
N
s
HD-1 Diameter (mm) 242.2 383.8 411.1 351.8 5 7 578
Width (mm) 118.9 104.7 119.8 352.7
Blade angle (deg) 70.5 59.1 66.0 4.8
HD-2 Diameter (mm) 280.1 408.8 463.0 436.4 5 7 800
Width (mm) 171.4 124.6 139.6 133.1
Blade angle (deg) 67.0 59.8 51.8 7.9
HD-3 Diameter (mm) 197.0 252.3 273.5 272.8 4 7 1047
Width (mm) 98.2 104.5 101.9 108.0
Blade angle (deg) 63.4 60.2 39.2 11.8
HD-4 Diameter (mm) 439.0 564.9 603.7 630.0 4 7 1083
Width (mm) 213.0 234.0 239.3 238.6
Blade angle (deg) 65.5 59.7 36.4 13.7
110 E S YOON, H W OH, M K CHUNG AND J S HA
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where V
SLcent
represents the slip velocity in centrifugal
impellers, which is calculated by using the Busemann for-
mula, which has been recommended as the best one by a
comparative study of Wiesner (8).
2.2 Analysis of internal losses in mixed-ow pumps
Practical design and off-design performance analyses of
mixed-ow impellers are achieved usually through the
rule of similarity existing between similar pump models.
Such a prediction method using the similitude based on vari-
ous experimental data is relatively accurate. However, in the
case of a design and performance prediction of a new geo-
metric mixed-ow pump whose geometric shape departs
from the existing ones, the method using empirical loss
correlations must be employed.
The present study adopts the optimum set of six internal
loss correlations for centrifugal impellers (5), which are
listed in Table 2. In addition to these six loss models, a
head loss due to ow separation on the suction surface in
the impeller passage is included. The parasitic losses in
Table 2 will be discussed in a later section (Section 3). As
can be seen in Figs 2 to 5, the characteristic curve of
mixed-ow pumps shows a dip at low owrates; i.e. the
head rst decreases with increasing owrate to form a local
minimum and then increases to reach a local maximum. Eck
(15) suggested that this wavy variation is caused by the
ow separation in this low capacity range. Jansen and
Sunderland (4) found that uid ow begins to separate
when the ratio of the impeller inlet to outlet relative velocity
(or relative velocity diffusion ratio) reaches a critical
value of 1.4, in most cases due to secondary ows, wall cur-
vature and short passages in the impeller. Based on this
observation, the following loss model is devised:
Dh
sep
f
sep
W
1t
W
2
1:4
_ _
2
W
2
2
g
2
where f
sep
is the separation loss coefcient.
The empirical internal loss correlations suggested in this
study to predict the total head of mixed-ow impellers are
summarized in Table 2. Most mixed-owpumps have vaned
diffusers where the chord is parallel to the axial direction in
the meridional plane. In this study, the head losses through
the vaned diffuser are analysed by two-dimensional cascade
theory and also Howells correlations (6). A set of loss mod-
els to evaluate the head loss in the diffuser of mixed-ow
pumps is shown in Table 3.
The total head of mixed-ow pumps can then be
calculated as follows:
H H
Euler
SDh
int
Dh
vd
_ _
3
where SDh
int
represents the summation of all internal losses
in mixed-ow impellers and Dh
vd
the total vaned diffuser
loss.
3 PARASITIC LOSS ANALYSIS
The overall pump efciency is computed from the following
equation:
h
p

rgQH
P
act
4
where the denominator represents the actual input shaft
power including the parasitic works. In this study, the para-
sitic losses are assumed to be made up of recirculation loss
and leakage loss. The recirculation loss means the additional
work done on the uid which does not have sufcient
momentum to overcome the pressure gradient of the mean
ow in the diffuser and is forced back into the impeller exit.
Recently, Jansen and Sunderland (4) investigated the
actual head rise of centrifugal pumps under a recirculating
inlet condition at the low owrate region and quantitatively
estimated the internal recirculation loss due to the backows
in the impeller inlet. However, they did not provide an
empirical formula to predict the recirculating loss but sug-
gested a fraction of the additional input head required.
Oh et al. (5) developed a new recirculation loss model
employing a hyperbolic function for centrifugal impellers
in order to smoothly connect the loss distributions between
lowand high owregions, which produced the best agreement
with experimental efciency data. Mixed-ow impellers
usually lie on a surface with a semi-cone angle in the axial
direction. This conguration must cause recirculation phe-
nomena in the mixed-owimpeller discharge that are different
from those in the centrifugal discharge with the impeller exit
perpendicular to the axial direction. In order to take account
of such a different conguration, a correction factor, f
rc
, is
introduced to the recirculation loss model of Oh et al. (5) to
A03997 IMechE 1998 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 212 Part A
Fig. 1 Meridional cross-section of mixed-ow pump
111 PERFORMANCE PREDICTION OF MIXED-FLOW PUMPS
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predict the recirculation loss in a mixed-ow impeller. The
resulting form of the recirculation loss in a mixed-ow
pump becomes
Dh
rc
f
rc
f
sinh3:5a
3
2
D
2
f
U
2
2
g
5
where f 8 10
5
.
Another parasitic loss is due to the leakage ow through
the clearance gap of open impellers, for which the recent
model of Aungier (14) is adopted in this study. The model
set used here for prediction of these parasitic losses in
mixed-ow impellers is listed in Table 2.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Performance predictions by the present set of loss models
are compared with the test results of four mixed-ow
pumps over a wide range of specic speeds, 5781083,
and also with those obtained by a prediction method based
on two-dimensional cascade theory (1, 3). The inuence
of the separation loss, Dh
sep
, on the total pump performance
is rst considered. Figure 2 shows the comparison between
predictions and the test results for a pump set HD-1 of
N
s
578. The curve with f
sep
0 represents the predic-
tion without considering the separation loss. It can be
seen that inclusion of the separation loss remarkably
improves the prediction performance. The optimum value
of f
sep
is that which yields the best overall accuracy in the
performance prediction of the HD-1 pump and the recom-
mended f
sep
is the average value among optimum f
sep
values of four sets of HD pumps tested in this study.
With the separation loss coefcient of f
sep
0:75
A03997 IMechE 1998 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 212 Part A
Table 2 A recommendable set of loss models for mixed-ow impellers
Loss mechanism Loss model Reference
Internal loss
Entrance loss Dh
ent
f
ent
V
2
0
2g
Rathod and Donovan (9)
where f
ent
0:13
Incidence loss Dh
inc
f
inc
W
2
ui
2g
Conrad et al. (10)
where f
inc
0:5 0:7
Diffusion loss Dh
diff

0:05D
2
f
U
2
2
g
Coppage et al. (11)
Skin friction loss Dh
sf
2C
f
L
b
D
hyd
W
2
g
Jansen (12)
where W
V
1t
V
2
W
1t
2W
1h
3W
2
8
Clearance loss Dh
cl
0:6

b
2
V
u2
g
4p
b
2
Z
r
r
2
1t
r
2
1h
2r
2t
r
1t

_ _
V
u2
V
m1m
_ _
1=2
Jansen (12)
Mixing loss Dh
mix

1
1 tan
2
a
2
1
wake
b

1
wake
_ _
2
V
2
2
2g
Johnston and Dean (13)
Separation loss Dh
sep
f
sep
W
1t
W
2
1:4
_ _
2
W
2
2
g
Present [equation (2)]
where f
sep
0:61
Parasitic loss
Recirculation loss Dh
rc
f
rc
f sinh3:5a
3
2
D
2
f
U
2
2
g
Present [equation (5)]
where f 8 10
5
, f
rc
0:54
Leakage loss Dh
lk

Q
cl
U
cl
U
2
2Q

g
Aungier (14)
where
U
cl
0:816

2DP
cl
r
_ _
DP
cl

rQ

r
2
V
u2
r
1
V
u1

Z
r
r

bL
v
r
r
1
r
2
2

b
b
1
b
2
2
Q
cl
Z
r
L
v
U
cl
112 E S YOON, H W OH, M K CHUNG AND J S HA
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(optimum), the total head performance curve agrees well
with the test data.
Similar observations can be made in Figs 3 to 5, which
represent the comparisons between predictions and mea-
sured performances for HD-2 (N
s
800), HD-3
(N
s
1047) and HD-4 (N
s
1083) pumps respectively. It
is noted from Figs 4 and 5 that as the specic speed
increases, such improvements in predicting the total head
by including the separation loss become more pronounced.
The optimal values for the separation loss coefcient (f
sep
,
optimum) differ from each other and their average value
of f
sep
0:61 is recommended.
The present study also tests a prediction method that
combines Sarkars method (3) based on two-dimensional
cascade theory adopting the concept of vectorial mean velo-
city for performance prediction of mixed-ow impellers and
the present method using Howells correlation (Table 3) for
the vaned diffuser analysis. The results are also shown with
dotted lines in Figs 2 to 5. Although the analysis using two-
dimensional cascade theory accurately predicts experimen-
tal data near the design owrate in Figs 4 and 5, it seriously
underpredicts the total head rise at off-design conditions.
Because the losses are calculated through the drag coef-
cient, C
D
, which depends on Howells experimental data
for two-dimensional cascades (6), effects of Coriolis force,
local blade stalling between impeller blades under rotation
and three-dimensional effects due to the formation of rever-
sal eddies at the low owrate region cannot be included by
such simple two-dimensional cascade data correlations.
Secondly, the effect of the parasitic recirculation loss on
the efciency prediction is investigated by using a correc-
tion factor, f
rc
. For this test, the internal losses are estimated
by the seven internal loss models listed in Table 2 for impel-
lers and the three loss models in Table 3 for vaned diffusers.
A03997 IMechE 1998 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 212 Part A
Fig. 2 Comparison of experimental and calculated head for
HD-1 pump
Fig. 3 Comparison of experimental and calculated head for
HD-2 pump
Fig. 4 Comparison of experimental and calculated head for
HD-3 pump
Fig. 5 Comparison of experimental and calculated head for
HD-4 pump
113 PERFORMANCE PREDICTION OF MIXED-FLOW PUMPS
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The predicted efciencies are compared with measured
curves and those calculated using Sarkars method (3) in
Figs 6 to 9.
For each test pump, two sets of values for f
rc
and f
sep
are
shown in the gures. The optimum value of f
rc
is that
obtained by optimizing the efciency prediction of each
pump set with the respective optimum value of f
sep
, whereas
the recommended f
rc
is an average value among optimum f
rc
values under the same recommended value of f
sep
0:61. It
can be seen from these results in Figs 6 to 9 that, although
the optimum pairs of the correction factors yield slightly
better predictions than with the recommended values, such
improvements in accuracy are within the experimental
uncertainty of about 2:5 per cent, and thus the recom-
mended values ( f
rc
0:54, f
sep
0:61) are suggested in
practical analysis and design procedures for mixed-ow
pumps.
5 CONCLUSIONS
A previous study (5) to nd an optimum set of loss models
for the mean streamline analysis of centrifugal pumps and
compressors has been extended to the analysis of mixed-
ow pumps. The performance analysis was carried out by
assuming that a mixed-ow pump consists of a centrifugal
impeller on a ramped hub and an axial-ow vaned diffuser.
Since the uid ows through rotating channels with a semi-
cone angle of less than 90 to the axial direction, the ow is
more amenable to ow separation at low owrates than a
centrifugal-type machine. In addition, the recirculation at
the impeller discharge must be different from that of the
centrifugal-type machine. The present study proposes a
loss prediction model due to the ow separation peculiar
to a mixed-ow pump, and also modies the recirculation
loss model of a centrifugal-type machine for the analysis
of a mixed-ow pump.
Four performance data sets of mixed-ow pumps were
compared with predictions using the proposed set of models
A03997 IMechE 1998 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 212 Part A
Table 3 A set of loss models* for mixed-ow pump vaned
diffusers
Loss mechanism Drag coefcient Reference
Prole loss C
Dp
(from experimental chart) Howell (6)
Annulus loss C
Da
0:02s=h
Secondary loss C
Ds
0:018C
2
L
*Head loss evaluation, Dh
vd
:
Dh
vd

V
2
m
2g
c
s
_ _
s
C
D
cos a
m
Fig. 6 Comparison of experimental and calculated efciency for
HD-1 pump
Fig. 8 Comparison of experimental and calculated efciency for
HD-3 pump
Fig. 7 Comparison of experimental and calculated efciency for
HD-2 pump
114 E S YOON, H W OH, M K CHUNG AND J S HA
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for both internal and parasitic losses. The results agree very
satisfactorily with the measured performance curves. The
predicted head curve shows the characteristic dip in the range
of low owrates. The accuracies in predicting both head and
efciency by the proposed method are remarkably superior to
other prediction methods using two-dimensional cascade data
and correlations.
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4 Jansen, W. and Sunderland, P. B. Off-design performance
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A03997 IMechE 1998 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 212 Part A
Fig. 9 Comparison of experimental and calculated efciency for
HD-4 pump
115 PERFORMANCE PREDICTION OF MIXED-FLOW PUMPS
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