International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems

Korean Society for Fluid machinery (한국유체기계학회)
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Radial Thrust of Single-Blade Centrifugal Pump

  • Nishi, Yasuyuki (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ibaraki University) ;
  • Fukutomi, Junichiro (Institute of Technology and Science, The University of Tokushima) ;
  • Fujiwara, Ryota (Graduate School of Advanced Technology and Science, The University of Tokushima)
  • Received : 2011.10.12
  • Accepted : 2011.12.08
  • Published : 2011.12.31
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Abstract

Single-blade centrifugal pumps are widely used as sewage pumps. However, the impeller of a single-blade pump is subjected to strong radial thrust during pump operation because of the geometrical axial asymmetry of the impeller. Therefore, to improve pump reliability, it is necessary to quantitatively understand radial thrust and elucidate the behavior and mechanism of thrust generating. This study investigates the radial thrust acting up on a single-blade centrifugal impeller by conducting experiments and CFD analysis. The results show that the fluctuating component of radial thrust increases as the flow rate deviates from the design flow rate to low or high value. Radial thrust was modeled by a combination of three components, inertia, momentum, and pressure by applying an unsteady conservation of momentum to the impeller. The sum of these components agrees with the radial thrust calculated by integrating the pressure and the shearing stress on the impeller surface. The behavior of each component was shown, and the effects of each component on radial thrust were clarified. The pressure component has the greatest effect on the time-averaged value and the fluctuating component of radial thrust. The time-averaged value of the inertia component is nearly 0, irrespective of the change in the flow rate. However, its fluctuating component has a magnitude nearly comparable with the pressure component at a low flow rate and slightly decreased with the increase in flow rate.

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References

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