257

2014,26(2):257-263
DOI: 10.1016/S1001-6058(14)60029-9

Numerical prediction of 3-D periodic flow unsteadiness in a centrifugal pump

under part-load condition*

PEI Ji (), YUAN Shou-qi (), LI Xiao-jun (), YUAN Jian-ping ()

National Research Center of Pumps, Jiangsu University Zhenjiang 212013, China, E-mail: jpei@ujs.edu.cn

(Received August 20, 2013, Revised January 12, 2014)

Abstract: Numerical simulation and 3-D periodic flow unsteadiness analysis for a centrifugal pump with volute are carried out in
whole flow passage, including the impeller with twisted blades, the volute and the side chamber channels under a part-load condition.
The pressure fluctuation intensity coefficient (PFIC) based on the standard deviation method, the time-averaged velocity unsteadi-
ness intensity coefficient (VUIC) and the time-averaged turbulence intensity coefficient (TIC) are defined by averaging the results at
each grid node for an entire impeller revolution period. Therefore, the strength distributions of the periodic flow unsteadiness based
on the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations can be analyzed directly and in detail. It is shown that under
the 0.6Qdes. condition, the pressure fluctuation intensity is larger near the blade pressure side than near the suction side, and a high
fluctuation intensity can be observed at the beginning section of the spiral of the volute. The flow velocity unsteadiness intensity is
larger near the blade suction side than near the pressure side. A strong turbulence intensity can be found near the blade suction side,
the impeller shroud side as well as in the side chamber. The leakage flow has a significant effect on the inflow of the impeller, and
can increase both the flow velocity unsteadiness intensity and the turbulence intensity near the wall. The accumulative flow unstea-
diness results of an impeller revolution can be an important aspect to be considered in the centrifugal pump optimum design for ob-
taining a more stable inner flow of the pump and reducing the flow-induced vibration and noise in certain components.

Key words: numerical prediction, flow unsteadiness, turbulence intensity, centrifugal pump with volute

Introduction foundations can spread as the solid-borne noise throu-

The centrifugal pump is one of the most impo-
rtant energy conversion device widely used in almost
all industrial and agricultural applications: including
the nuclear industry, the petroleum industry, the agri-
business, the chemistry industry, as well as the cryo-
genic propellant pumping. The complex inner flow in
the centrifugal pump, with a strong rotor-stator intera-
ction, can generate hydraulic excitation forces and
give rise to pressure pulsations, especially under a
part-load condition. These dynamic pressures then
will lead to mechanical vibrations and alternating stre-
sses in various pump components, called the flow-in-
duced vibration[1]. The vibrations transmitted to the
* Project supported by the National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China (Grant Nos. 51239005, 51009072), the Na-
tional Science and Technology Pillar Program of China (Grant
No. 2011BAF14B04).
Biography: PEI Ji (1984-), Male, Ph. D.
ghout the building, and the vibrating pump structures
can also radiate air-borne and fluid-borne noises.
This periodical rotor-stator interaction involves
two kinds of effects, as discussed by Feng et al.[2]. The
first is the downstream effect of the impeller on the
stator flow, which is characterized by unsteady effects
due to the highly distorted relative impeller flow field
and impeller wakes. The second is the upstream effect
of the stator on the impeller flow, which causes un-
steady pressures and velocity fluctuations to the rela-
tive flow. This unsteady effect was studied both nu-
merically and experimentally, and most of the investi-
gations focus on the radial diffuser pumps because of
the multi-vanes of both the rotor and the stator and the
more complicated mechanism. Shi and Tsukamoto[3]
made calculations based on the three dimensional un-
steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS)
equations with standard turbulence models within an
entire stage of a diffuser pump to investigate the pre-
ssure fluctuations due to the interaction between impe-
ller and diffuser vanes. He et al.[4] calculated the 3-D
unsteady flow in a diffuser pump stage. All impeller
258
blades and diffuser vanes were considered simulta-
neously at the design operation point by using a time
marching based method. Zhang and Tsukamoto[5] cal-
culated an unsteady flow for a vaned diffuser to inve-
stigate unsteady hydrodynamic forces and pressure
fluctuations in the diffuser region. Feng et al.[6] calcu-
lated the transient flow in an industrial radial pump
stage with all the blades by the CFX at the design ope-
rating point, and experimental work was carried out to
investigate the unsteady flow in a low specific speed
radial diffuser pump using LDV and PIV techniques.
The phase-averaged velocity field, the turbulence field,
and the blade orientation effects were quantitatively
examined in detail. Akhras et al.[7] revealed by the
LDV that there was a presence of the jet-wake flow
structure in the impeller exit. Pintrand et al.[8] prese-
nted some results of 2-D LDV measurements within
the outer part of the impeller and the vaned diffuser.
Sinha and Katz[9] used PIV measurements to identify
the unsteady flow structure and turbulence in a tran-
sparent radial pump with a vaned diffuser. Some other
research work[10-14] can also be found for the study of
the pressure fluctuation caused by the periodical un-
steady flow in centrifugal pumps and turbines.
However, most of numerical results mentioned
above were only visualized in the whole flow channel
for limited time points or at limited monitor positions
for a whole impeller revolution. It is not easy to check
the unsteadiness of the flow considering both the
whole revolution period and the whole flow channel at
the same time in such a way. Therefore, it is necessary
to find a way that can solve this problem, and can
check the flow unsteadiness directly and in detail in
the design of a low vibration and low noise pump. In
addition, the complex unstable flow under a part-load
condition in a centrifugal pump has still not been fully
understood. Consequently, this paper focuses on the
CFD simulation and the flow unsteadiness analysis for
a centrifugal pump with volute under a typical part-
load condition (0.6Qdes. ) . The periodic flow unsteadi-
ness is quantitatively investigated in detail by defining
the PFIC, the time-averaged VUIC and the time-ave-
raged TIC in the impeller, the side chamber and the
volute fluid domain for an impeller revolution, which
can improve the understanding of the impeller-volute
interaction in centrifugal pumps and can be used to
decrease the unsteadiness in the pump design.
1. Definition of periodic flow unsteadiness
The definition of the flow unsteadiness is based
on[15-17]. For the transient simulations obtained by the
URANS equations, the pressure fluctuation compone-
nts are only the phase-averaged values, which are hi-
ghly periodic at each grid node in the whole computa-
tional domain, and no instantaneous fluctuating pre-
ssure components are obtained. Therefore, the periodi-
cal unsteady pressure p at a grid node can be decom-
posed into two parts: the time-averaged pressure p
and the periodic pressure p representing the part of
the pressure that changes periodically with the blade
passing frequency, and they are defined as
N 1
1
p (node) =
N
p (node, t
j =0
0 + j t ) (1)
p (node, t ) = p (node, t ) p (node) (2)
Therefore, to determine the magnitude of the
three-dimensional pressure fluctuations for an entire
revolution period, a non-dimensional pressure fluctua-
tion intensity coefficient CP 3 D is defined, as in our
former paper[18-20],
1 N 1
p (node, t0 + j t )2
N j =0
CP* 3D = (3)
1 2
u2
2
and it is calculated by the standard deviation of the
unsteady pressure normalized by the dynamic pressure
based on the impeller tip speed u2 . Here, N represe-
nts the sample number during one revolution period,
t0 is the starting time for one period of the transient
simulation.
To clearly understand the 3-D periodical unstea-
dy velocity and the turbulence behavior caused by the
impeller-volute interaction in the centrifugal pump
with twisted blades, the 3-D velocity unsteadiness in-
tensity and the turbulence intensity in both impeller
and volute are defined in this section. In order to exa-
mine quantitatively the 3-D unsteadiness of the impe-
ller relative flow, the UVIC I u 3 D is calculated by the
root mean squares of three relative periodic compone-
nts normalized by the impeller tip speed u2 in Eq.(4),
and the time-averaged UVIC I u 3 D is calculated in
Eq.(5) considering the results for 120 time steps in
one impeller revolution, and the examined points in
the rotor region are in the rotating frame of reference.
The UVIC in both sidechamber and volute fluid do-
mains, Su 3 D , is defined by the root mean squares of
three absolute periodic velocity components in Eq.(6),
and the time-averaged UVIC Su 3 D is calculated by
Eq.(7). The way of calculating periodic velocity com-
ponents in the rotating and stationary frames of refere-
nce can be found in Ref.[15]
 259

1 2 model. The overview of the pump structure is shown

(Wu a + Wr2 a + W z2 a) in Fig.1. The design parameters of the pump is shown
I u 3D a = 3 (4) in Table 1.
u2
Table 1 Parameters of the pump
where a = ( , , , ) Design parameters

1 T H des. 34 m D2 0.172 m

T 0
I u 3D ( , , ) = I u 3 D ( , , , t )d t (5) 3
Qdes. 50 m /h b2 0.012 m

n 2 900 r/min D1 0.075 m

1 2
(Cu b + C r2 b + C z2 b)
3 ns 88.6 D3 0.184 m
Su 3D b = (6)
u2 Z 6 Dd 0.050 m

where b = ( x, y , z , )
The 3-D URANS equations are solved using the
shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. The
1 T
T 0
Su 3D ( x, y, z ) = Su 3 D ( x, y, z , t )d t (7) mass conservation equation and the momentum conse-
rvation equation for incompressible fluid are as follo-
ws:
The TIC Tu 3 D is defined in Eq.(8) by the turbule-
nce kinetic energy k ( x, y, z , ) . The 3-D time-avera- ui
=0 (10)
ged TIC Tu 3 D in one period is calculated by Eq.(9). xi

p
k ( x, y , z , ) ( ui ) + ( ui u j ) = +
Tu 3D ( x, y, z , ) = (8) t x j xi
u2

1 T u u j
T 0
Tu 3D ( x, y, z ) = Tu 3 D ( x, y, z , t )d t (9) i + uiu j + Fi (11)
x j x j xi
It is noted that the broad-band low-frequency flu-
where is the dynamic viscosity, Fi is the source
ctuations (i.e., non-periodic) are not considered in this
method, and only the periodic fluctuations caused by item, and uiu j is the Reynolds stress. Since here
the RSI with a significant magnitude are included. The all variables are mean flow quantities, it is customary
method can help to establish the relationship between
to drop time symbols. The transport equations for k
the geometrical parameters of the hydraulic compone-
and in the SST turbulence model are as follows:
nts and the unsteady flow directly, although so far the
unsteady flow behaviors in centrifugal pumps are not
well understood. ( k ) ( u j k )
+ = Pk k +
t x j

t k
+ (12)
x j k 3 x j

( ) ( u j )
+ = a3 Pk 3 2 +
t x j k

t 1 k
Fig.1 Model pump + + 2(1 F1 ) 2 (13)
x j 3 x j x j x j

2. Numerical simulation u u j ui 2 u u
A commercial single-stage single-suction horizo- Pk = t i + k + t l k (14)
x
ntal centrifugal pump is selected as the calculation j xi x j 3 xl xk
260
The structured grids for computational domains
are generated using the grid generation tool ICEM-
CFD 12.1, the grid details in both rotating and statio-
nary domains are partially shown in Figs.2 and 3, and
the number of grid elements is 3 657 012 for both ro-
tating and stationary domains. The independence of
the solutions from the number of grid nodes is proven
by simulating the flow field with different numbers of
grid nodes. The maximum non-dimensional wall dis-
tance y + 40 is obtained in the complete flow field.
Both the hub and shroud side chambers between the
impeller and the pump casing are also included in the
grids to take the leakage flow effect into account.
Fig.2 Grid details in impeller and side chamber
Fig.3 Grid in volute domain
The discretization in space is of second-order ac-
curacy, and the second-order backward Euler scheme
is chosen for the time discretization. The interface bet-
ween the impeller and the casing is set to the tran-
sient rotor-stator to capture the transient rotor-stator
interaction in the flow, because the relative position
between the impeller and the casing is different for di-
fferent time steps with this kind of interface. Two di-
fferent coordinate systems are utilized for rotation and
stationary domains, respectively. The inlet boundary
condition is set to the total pressure in the stationary
frame while the outlet condition is set to the Mass
flow rate, and all specific values are obtained from the
laboratory test. The smooth wall condition is used for
the near wall function. The chosen time step t for
the transient simulation is 0.000172414 s for the no-
minal rotating speed, corresponding to the changed
angle of 3o, therefore, 120 transient results are inclu-
ded for one impeller revolution calculation. Within
each time step, the number of iterations is chosen as
10 and the iteration stops when the RMS residual is
less than 104. The convergence criterion for the tran-
sient problem is that the result reaches its stable perio-
dicity, 5 revolutions of the impeller for each operatio-
nal condition in this case are involved. To obtain the
stable numerical simulation, a steady calculation with
the frozen rotor strategy is carried out in advance.
3. Results and discussions
3.1 Experimental validation
To verify the accuracy of the calculation, experi-
mental data are collected for the model pump in the
laboratory, and the test rig is shown in Fig.4. The pre-
ssure in the inlet and the outlet is measured by the pre-
ssure sensor, with a precision of 0.1%. The flow rates
are measured by the LWGY-200A turbine flow meter
with the measurement error within 0.5%.
Fig.4 Test rig
Fig.5 Performance curves for model pump
Figure 5 shows the performance curves for the
model pump, and the result under each flow rate is the
mean value of the unsteady calculation results. As can
be seen from the figure, the measured and the calcula-
ted heads are compared for different flow rates. Good
agreement is obtained for the design and large flow
rates, and the calculated head results are lower than

the measured ones for part-load conditions, because
some additional flow instabilities may occur at small
flow rates, and it is not easy to capture them accura-
tely by the URANS CFD simulation.
Fig.6 Time-averaged PFIC distributions in impeller domain at
midspan
Fig.7 Time-averaged PFIC distributions around blades at mid-
span
3.2 Pressure fluctuation intensity analysis under
0.6Qdes. condition
The time-averaged PFIC distribution is shown in
Fig.6, which can describe the pressure fluctuation cha-
racters for the entire impeller revolution period in the
impeller domain. The maximum fluctuation intensity
can be found at the blade trailing edge near the blade
pressure side for every flow channel under the part-
load condition. The relative high pressure fluctuation
intensity can be clearly observed near the impeller
outlet, and the intensity decreases gradually from the
outlet to the impeller inlet area, because of a strong
rotor-stator interaction at the impeller outlet area.
Figure 7 shows the pressure fluctuation intensity dis-
tribution around all blades of the impeller at the mid-
span, and the time-averaged PFIC distributions on
both PS and SS of the blade can be clearly seen. The
streamline coordinate is defined as 0 at the inlet, 0.25
at the blade leading edge, 0.75 at the trailing edge, and
1.0 at the outlet. The PFIC at LE is smaller than at TE,
and a sharp increase of PFIC can be seen at TE, which
corresponds to the maximum value described above.
From TE to LE, the PFIC decreases slowly around the
blade, and the change rate is larger around PS of the
261
blade. The PFIC distribution around PS is larger than
SS, and the difference increases from LE to TE. In ad-
dition, the PFIC distributions for all blades are almost
similar, and the distribution of PFIC is symmetrical in
the impeller.
Fig.8 Time-averaged PFIC distributions in side chamber and
volute domain
Figure 8 shows the time-averaged PFIC distribu-
tions in the side chamber and the volute domain. From
the left picture, a high pressure fluctuation can be seen
at the area near the blade outlet, which means that in
this area a strong fluctuation intensity can be found for
three directions. In the right picture, the maximum
PFIC can be observed at the beginning section of the
spiral not far from the tongue in the volute.
Fig.9 Time-averaged VUIC distributions in impeller domain
3.3 Velocity unsteadiness intensity analysis under
0.6Qdes. condition
Figure 9 shows the time-averaged VUIC distribu-
tion in the impeller domain, which can describe the
unsteadiness of the flow velocity in the centrifugal
pump for entire impeller revolution. In the impeller
channel, a high velocity unsteadiness can be clearly
seen at position A which is near the blade suction side
not far from the blade leading edge, and the unsteadi-
ness spreads to the flow channel toward the outlet di-
rection. In addition, a strong unsteadiness can be seen
also at the blade trailing edge near the pressure side.
However, in the axial direction, the time-averaged
262
VUIC distributions in the impeller channel are differe-
nt, a large VUIC can be observed near the blade hub
side, as shown at position B.
Fig.10 Time-averaged VUIC distributions in side chamber and
volute
The time-averaged VUIC distributions in the side
chamber and the volute domain under the part-load
condition are shown in Fig.10. A strong velocity un-
steadiness for an impeller revolution can be found at
position A which is strongly influenced by the leakage
flow in the pump, although the unsteadiness in the
side chamber is not strong. Therefore, the leakage
flow has a significant effect on the inflow of the impe-
ller, and can increase the inflow unsteadiness near the
wall. In the volute, a strong VUIC can be also found
in the area near the volute base line and the tongue,
that means that the RSI effects are strong in these
areas, which causes the strong velocity variations.
Fig.11 Time-averaged TIC distributions in impeller domain
3.4 Turbulence intensity analysis under 0.6Qdes. con-
dition
Figure 11 shows the time-averaged TIC distribu-
tion in the impeller domain under the part-load condi-
tion, which can describe the turbulence variation inte-
nsity for an impeller revolution. A very strong TIC
can be clearly found at position A in the impeller cha-
nnel near the blade suction side, which takes a half
width of the channel. In addition, from the meridian
section plane, a strong time-averaged TIC distribution
can be observed near the impeller shroud side, shown
as position B.
Figure 12 shows the time-averaged TIC distribu-
tion in the side chamber and the volute under the part-
load condition. A strong influence of leakage flow on
the inflow turbulence unsteady behaviors can be clea-
rly observed, and the flow with a strong TIC can be
seen near the wall, because the unstable flow and the
vortexes are caused in this region. An obvious time-
averaged TIC can be also observed in the side cha-
mber, because the flow channel is narrow, and the vis-
cosity of the water becomes an important factor in-
fluencing the unsteady flow, and some vortexes with a
relatively strong turbulence intensity can be observed
in this region.
Fig.12 Time-averaged TIC distributions in side chamber and
volute
4. Conclusions
Based on the CFD simulation, the 3-D inner flow
field in a centrifugal pump with volute is investigated
from a brand new angle of view to check some new
phenomena of the unsteady flow under a part-load
condition in this paper. The whole flow passage is
considered in the calculation, and the 3-D periodic
flow unsteadiness is quantitatively investigated in de-
tail by defining the time-averaged PFIC, VUIC and
TIC, which are calculated by averaging the results of
each mesh node for entire impeller revolution period
to evaluate the strength distributions of flow unstea-
diness directly and comprehensively. The following
conclusions are reached from the analysis of the resu-
lts.
(1) A high pressure fluctuation intensity can be
observed near the impeller outlet. The pressure flu-
ctuation intensity is larger near the blade pressure side
than near the suction side. A high fluctuation intensity
can be also observed at the beginning section of the
spiral of the volute.
(2) The flow velocity unsteadiness intensity is st-
ronger near the blade suction side than near the pre-
ssure side, and a strong intensity can be observed near
the blade hub side.
(3) A strong turbulence intensity can be clearly
found near the blade suction side and near the impeller
shroud side. An obvious time-averaged turbulence in-
tensity can be observed in the side chamber.
(4) The leakage flow has a significant effect on
the inflow of the impeller, and can increase both the
flow velocity unsteadiness intensity and the turbule-

nce intensity near the wall.
The accumulative flow unsteadiness results of an
impeller revolution can be an important aspect to be
considered in the centrifugal pump optimum design
for obtaining a more stable inner flow of the pump
and reducing the flow-induced vibration and noise
in certain components.
Acknowledgement
The authors would also like to thank Prof. Feng
Jian-jun from Xian University of Technology.
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