Experimental and numerical investigation of the transient characteristics and volute casing wall pressure fluctuations of a single-blade pump

Abstract

In contrast to conventional multiblade centrifugal pumps, single-blade pumps are characterized by a significant fluctuation of head and highly transient and circumferentially nonuniform flow field even in the best-efficiency point. For a contribution to a better understanding of the flow field and an improvement of numerical methods, a combined experimental and numerical study is performed with special emphasis on the analysis of the transient pressure field. In an open test rig, piezoresistive pressure sensors are utilized for the measurement of transient in- and outflow conditions and the volute casing wall pressure fluctuations. The quality of the numerical simulations is ensured by a careful adoption of the real geometry details in the simulation model, a grid study and a time step study. While the power curve is well reproduced by the numerical simulations, the time-averaged head is systematically overpredicted, probably due to underestimation of losses. Transient pressure boundary conditions for the numerical simulation show a better prediction of the measured pressure amplitude than constant boundary conditions, whereas the time-averaged head prediction is not improved. For a more accurate prediction of the transient flow field and the time-averaged characteristics, the utilization of scale-resolving turbulence models is assumed to be indispensable.