Experimental study on fiber suspension in a centrifugal pump by PIV

Abstract

Abstract To study the influence of fiber particles on the flow field within the passages of an open impeller centrifugal pump, an experiment was performed. The hair fiber was used as solid particle phase in this experiment. After measuring the performance characteristic and PIV data, the flow field in impeller was measured and analyzed. It was shown that at the concentration of 0.1%, a varied distribution of relative velocity from different flow channels was observed. The outlet velocity of the impeller in the second flow channel was obviously higher than that in the first flow channel. The variation of the relative velocity near the hub tended to be consistent at the position of the front plane and the middle plane of the impeller. At 0.2% concentration, the relative velocity at the suction surface of the two channels changes more sharply than the other positions. Within the second channel, it was found that the relative velocity under low flow condition was obviously higher than that under rated and large flow rates. Under different concentrations, the increase of the relative velocity at low flow rate changed intensely compared with the other two conditions. The low velocity zone will be formed near the middle part of the suction surface of the flow channel which gradually decreases with the increase of the flow rate. The external characteristic test shows that the efficiency of the pump and the drag reducing feature increase with the increase of concentration.