Characteristics of a Small Screw-type Centrifugal Pump Operating in Air-Water Two-Phase Flow

소형 스크류식 원심펌프의 기액 이상류 특성

A screw-type centrifugal pump was manufactured to carry primarily solids and its impeller had a wide flow passage. However, there was an effect on the flow passage shape on delay of the choke due to entrained air not being clarified yet. Moreover, because its impeller has a particular shape, only few studies have tried to clarify the pump performance and details of internal flow pattern of that pump. For this reason, we carried out the pump performance experiment under air-water two-phase flow condition with different impeller tip clearances, pump rotational speeds and void fractions by using a small screw-type centrifugal pump designed to acquire basic data. In a general centrifugal pump, it was reported that there was a loss of pump head from single-phase flow to the choke due to air entrainment near the best efficiency point being large. However, the loss near the best efficient point in a screw-type centrifugal pump became less than that in a general centrifugal pump.