• 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.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.15 no.6
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• pp.25-30
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• 2012

Renewable energy has been interested because of fluctuation of oil price, depletion of fossil fuel resources and environmental impact. Amongst renewable energy resources, hydropower is most reliable and cost effective way. In this study, to develop a new type of micro hydro turbine which can be operated in the range of very low specific speed, a cross-flow hydro turbine with simple structure is proposed. The turbine is designed to be used at the very low specific speed range of hydropower resources, such as very high-head and considerably small-flow rate water resources. CFD analysis on the performance and internal flow characteristics of the turbine is conducted to obtain a practical data for the new design method of the turbine. Results show that optimized arrangement of guide vane angle and inner guide angle can give contribution to the turbine performance improvement.

• 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.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.29 no.7 s.238
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• pp.773-783
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• 2005

Internal flow measurement of very low specific-speed semi-open impellers has been carried out by PIV in order to understand better the internal flow patterns that are responsible fur the unique performance of these centrifugal pumps operating in the range of very low specific speed. Two types of impellers, one equipped with six radial blades (Impeller A) and the other with four conventional backward-swept blades (Impeller B), are tested in a centrifugal pump operating at a non-dimensional specific-speed of $n_s=0.24$. Complex flow patterns captured by PIV are discussed in conjunction with the overall pump performance measured separately. It is revealed that Impeller A achieves higher effective head than Impeller B even though the flow patterns in Impeller A are more complex, exhibiting secondary flows and reverse flows in the impeller passage. It is shown that both the localized strong outward flow at the pressure side of each blade outlet and the strong outward through-flow along the suction side of each blade are responsible for the better head performance of Impeller A.

• 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.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.284-290
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• 2006

For the case of high head and critical low flow rate range of micro hydropower resources, it requires very low specific speed turbines which are lower than conventional impulse turbine's specific speed. In order to satisfy the request for very low specific speed turbine with high efficiency, a new positive displacement turbine is developed. The performance characteristics of the new turbine is tested and compared with a conventional impulse turbine, which is used for automatic water faucet system. The purpose of present study is to develop an high performance turbine that can be used to extract micro hydropower potential of a water supply system. The test results show that the positive displacement turbine is much more efficient than the conventional turbine and it can sustain high efficiency under the wide range of operating conditions. The pressure pulsations at the inlet and outlet of the positive displacement turbine can be considerably minimized by using simple pressure damper.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.9 no.1 s.34
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• pp.9-18
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• 2006

In the range of very low specific speed ($n_s<0.25$, non-dimensional), the performance of a centrifugal pump is much different from that of a centrifugal pump of normal ns and the efficiency of the pump drops rapidly with the decrease of $n_s$. In order to examine the reason of unstable performance characteristics of the very low $n_s$- centrifugal pump, the internal flow of the pump with a semi-open impeller is measured by a PTV(Particle Tracking Velocimetry) system. The purpose of this study is to make clear the internal flow characteristics and to obtain basic knowledge of the pump performance. The results show that the leakage flow through tip clearance give a strong effect on the flow pattern of impeller passage. A large vortex in the impeller passage and a strong reverse flow at impeller outlet are formed in the range of small flow rates, and the vortex and the reverse flow together reduce the absolute tangential velocity at the impeller outlet and cause the performance instability.

• 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.