• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.9 no.1 s.34
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• pp.40-46
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• 2006

Efficiency of a centrifugal pump is known to drop rapidly with a decrease of specific speed $n_s$. However, below $n_s=60\;[min^{-1},\;m^3/min,\;m]$, the pump characteristics are not yet clear. Therefore, present study is aimed to investigate the influence of large change of specific speed on the performance of a very low specific speed centrifugal pump. Moreover, influence of impeller configuration on the performance of very low specific speed pump is investigated. The results show that very low specific speed can be accomplished by reducing volute throat sectional area using circular spacer. Influence of the spacer's location and configuration in the discharge passage on the pump performance is very small. Best efficiency of very low specific speed centrifugal pump decreases proportionally to the specific speed but the best efficiency decreases on a large scale in the range of $n_s<40$. Influence of impeller configuration on the pump performance and radial thrust of centrifugal pump are considerably small in the range of extremely low specific speed $(n_s=25)$.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.9 no.1 s.34
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• pp.32-39
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• 2006

Recently, according to the trend of small size in scale and high speed in rotation of turbomachinery, very low specific speed centrifugal pump is taking a growing interest because the pump is characterized by high head and low flow rate with convenience of manufacturing and maintenance compared with conventional positive displacement pump. However, the efficiency of the very low specific speed centrifugal pump drops rapidly with the decrease of specific speed. The purpose of this study is nor only to examine the influence of casing type on the performance of centrifugal pump in the range of very low specific speed but also to determine the proper casing type for the improvement of pump performance. The results show that circular casing is suitable for the centrifugal pump in the range of very low specific speed and the influence of impeller configuration on the pump performance is very small. Radial thrust in the circular and volute casings is considerably small in the range of very low specific speed.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.32-36
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• 2012

The positive displacement pump and the regenerative pump are widely used in the range of low specific speed, $n_s{\leq}100$[rpm, m3/min, m]. The positive displacement pump is not suitable for miniaturization and operation in high rotational speed. The regenerative pump has a problem with large leakage flow and low efficiency. While the centrifugal pump has advantages of high efficiency, miniaturization and high rotational speed, efficiency drops sharply with decrease in specific speed. Therefore the purpose of this study is to design a new type of centrifugal pump that has advantages of centrifugal pumps in operation in low specific speed. The name of this new type of pump was called 'Pipe type centrifugal pump', since the flow path through the impeller is simple circular pipe. Due to the simple shape of impeller, the manufacturing process is simple and cost is low. There is strong jet flow at the outlet of the impeller. This jet induces flow path loss, meridional dynamic pressure loss and mixing loss. Large disk friction makes the efficiency be limitted in the range of low specific speed. Even though the loss and the low efficiency, 'Pipe type centrifugal pump' represents stable performance, affordable pressure ratio and efficiency better than that of other low specific speed pumps.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.9 no.3 s.36
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• pp.29-35
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• 2006

There are high expectations of improving the performance of a centrifugal pump in the range of very low specific speed which has been developed recently for the use instead of a conventional positive displacement pump. However, even though elaborated studies has been done for the pump intensively, the pump performance has not increased so much. Also, it is difficult to find detailed information from published literatures for suction performance of the very low specific speed centrifugal pump. Therefore, this study is aimed to improve the pump performance more and to make clear suction performance of the very low specific speed centrifugal pump. Recircular flow stopper is installed on the pump casing wall at the region of impeller outlet to improve the pump performance and J-Groove is also installed at the inlet of the pump casing for the purpose of suppressing occurrence of cavitation as well as improving pump performance. The result suggests that the simultaneous improvement of pump performance and suction performance of the very low specific speed centrifugal pump is possible by adopting optimum configuration of the recirculation flow stopper and J-Groove.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.133-139
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• 2011

In this paper, Based on Two-dimensional Flow Theory, adopting quasi-orthogonal method and point-by-point integration method to design the impeller of the low specific speed centrifugal pump by code, and using RANS (Reynolds Averaged N-S) Equation with a standard k-${\varepsilon}$ two-equation turbulence model and log-law wall function to solve 3D turbulent flow field in the impeller of the low specific speed pump. An analysis of the influences of the blade profile on velocity distributions, pressure distributions and pump performance and the investigation of the flow regulation pattern in the impeller of the centrifugal pump are presented. And the result shows that this method can be used as a new way in low speed centrifugal pump impeller design.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2011

The numerical study was conducted to investigate the pump performance due to impeller related parameters change in centrifugal pump of very low specific speed by using CFD code. A small centrifugal pump whose specific speed is $N_s=76.2$ was used, and the performance characteristics were discussed for different number of vanes, rotational speed, and the length and height of vane. The numerical results at a very low specific speed show that the increase of the number of vanes has little effect on improvement of output pressure but results in the reduction of pressure fluctuation, and that the head increases with the increase in the rotational speed. The decreasing the length of vane has a considerable reduction of the capacity coefficient in comparison with decreasing the height of vane.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.21-28
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• 2007

The ratio of disk friction loss in a centrifugal pump is very large for the total pump loss in the range of very low specific speed. Therefore, impeller radius should be shortened to increase the pump efficiency because the disk friction loss is proportional to the fifth power of impeller radius. In order to compensate the decreased head by the shortened impeller radius, vane angle at impeller outlet should be increased. However, as the vane angle at impeller outlet becomes larger, performance instability occurs at low flow rate regions. In this study, J-Groove is adopted to suppress the performance instability and detailed examination is performed for the influence of the J-Groove on the pump performance. The results show that J-Groove gives good effect on the suppression of performance instability. Moreover, as J-Groove increases pump head considerably, the pump size can be smaller for head requirements.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.29 no.7 s.238
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• pp.784-794
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• 2005

In the very low specific speed range ($n_s=0.24$ < 0.25, non-dimensional), the efficiency of centrifugal pump designed by a conventional method is very low in common. Therefore, positive-displacement pumps have long been used widely. Recently, since the centrifugal pumps are becoming higher in rotational speed and smaller in size, there expects to develop a new centrifugal pump with a high performance to replace the positive-displacement pumps. The purpose of this study is to investigate the internal flow characteristics of a very low specific speed centrifugal pump and to examine the effect of internal flow pattern on pump performance. The results show that the theoretical head definition of semi-open impeller should be revised by the consideration of high slip factor in the semi-open impeller, and the leakage flow through the tip clearance results in a large effect on the impeller internal flow. Strong reverse flow at the outlet of semi-open impeller reduces the absolute tangential velocity considerably, and the decreased absolute tangential velocity increasese the slip factor with the reduction of theoretical head.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.35-43
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• 2024

A pump turbine is a technically matured option for energy production and storage systems. At the off-design operating range, the pump turbine succumbed to flow instabilities, which correlated with the pump turbine geometry. A low specific speed pump turbine was designed and modified according to the impeller blade angle. Reynolds-Average Navier-Stokes is carried out with a shear stress transport turbulence model to evaluate the detailed flow characteristics in the pump turbine. The impeller blade inlet angle (𝛽₁) and outlet angle (𝛽₂) are used to evaluate hydraulic loss in the pump turbine. When 𝛽₁ changed from low to high value, the maximum efficiency is increased by 4.75% in turbine mode. The S-Curve inclination is reduced by 8% and 42% for changes in 𝛽₁ and 𝛽₂ from low to high values, respectively. At α = 21°, the shock loss coefficient (𝜁_s) is reduced by 16% and 19% with increases of 𝛽₁ and 𝛽₂ from low to high values, respectively. When 𝛽₁ and 𝛽₂ values increased from low to high, the impeller friction coefficient (𝜁_f) increased and decreased by 20% and 8%, respectively. Hence, the high 𝛽₂ effectively reduced the loss coefficient and S-Curve inclination.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.404-412
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• 2008

As a suitable volute configuration in the range of low specific speed, circular casing is suggested in this study. The internal flows in a centrifugal pump with the circular and spiral casings are measured by PIV and analyzed by CFD. The results show that the head and efficiency of the pump by a circular casing of very small radius are almost same as those by the spiral casing. Even at the best efficiency point, the internal flow of the pump by circular casing is asymmetric, and vortex and strong secondary flow occurs in the impeller passage. The radial velocity becomes higher remarkably only near the region of the discharge throat. The flow in the impeller outlet is strongly controlled by the circular casing because the velocity distribution almost does not affected by the position of the impeller blades.