Improving Pump Characteristics through Double Curvature Impellers: Experimental Measurements and 3D CFD Analysis

Abstract

The outlet angle and shape of impeller blades are important parameters in centrifugal pump design. There is a lack of detailed studies related to double curvature impellers in centrifugal pumps in the current literature; therefore, an experimental and numerical analysis of double curvature impellers was performed. Six impellers were made and then assessed in a centrifugal pump test bed and simulated via 3D CFD simulation. The original impeller was also tested and simulated. One of the manufactured impellers had the same design as the original, and the other five impellers had a double curvature. Laboratory tests and simulations were conducted with three rotation speeds: 1400, 1700, and 1900 RPM. Head and performance curve equations were obtained for the pump–engine unit based on the flow of each impeller for the three rotation speeds. The results showed that a double curvature impeller improved pump head by approximately 1 m for the range of the study and performance by about 2% when compared to basic impeller. On the other hand, it was observed that turbulence models such as k-ε and SST k-ω reproduced similar physical and numerical results.