Unsteady Hydrodynamic Forces due to Rotor-Stator Interaction on a Diffuser Pump With Identical Number of Vanes on the Impeller and Diffuser

Abstract

Experimental and computational study was developed for unsteady hydrodynamic forces on a diffuser pump impeller excited by the interaction between the impeller and the vaned diffuser with the same number of vanes as impeller. Unsteady flow calculations are made using commercially available CFD software, CFX-TASCflow, as well as the two-dimensional vortex method. Calculated pressure and fluid forces on the impeller show good agreement with measured ones. It has been demonstrated that the fluid forces on the impeller with the same number of vanes as the vaned diffuser are smaller compared with other combinations of vane numbers. However, the pressure fluctuations are found to be greater than other cases.