The study of cavitation phenomenon in multistage centrifugal pump and reduction of its damages

Cavitation phenomenon in centrifugal pumps is the main cause of failures in pump components such as impeller and volute. To evaluate this phenomenon, first of all, the ow field in a BB2 API multistage centrifugal pump with and without cavitation is studied. Additionally, to improve the impeller inlet condition and reduction of cavitation possibility, Stepannof and Dixon theory is used. This study mainly focuses on the concept of cavitation in pump, pump performance curve, system pump curve, and Net Positive Suction Head (NPSH). The main objective of this research is to determine the best operating pump range. It is interesting to investigate the system pump curve prediction to identify the inception cavitation zone. Therefore, a theoretical system pump curve was generated using Microsoft Excel 2010; in addition, Catia V5 R21 and ANSYS CFX 14 are applied to create a computational uid dynamic model from simulation results; the reduction of NPSHa values leads to the onset of cavitation. The major findings of this paper present the theoretical and numerical results concerning the pump characteristics and performance breakdown in different ow conditions. Therefore, the best operating pump range is identified at a ow rate of 330 m3=hr to avoid the occurrence of cavitation in pumps. © 2020 Sharif University of Technology. All rights reserved.