Unsteady flow structures in centrifugal pump under two types of stall conditions

The stall is an unsteady flow phenomenon that always causes instabilities and low efficiency for pumps. This paper focuses on the unsteady flow structures and evolutions under two types of stall conditions in centrifugal pump impellers. Two centrifugal pump impellers, one with 6 and another with 5 blades, are considered and a developed large-eddy simulation method is adopted. The results show that the alternative stall occurs in the impeller with 6 blades, while, the rotating stall is observed in that with 5 blades. The flow structure and the pressure fluctuation characteristics are further analyzed. For the alternative stall, the stall cells are fixed relative to the impeller, but a large vortex in the stalled passage is always swaying. The outlet vortex is generated from it, and then develops and sheds periodically. For the rotating stall, the stall cells first occur in the suction side of the blade. With the growth of the stall cells, the block area gradually increases until the inlet region is almost blocked, then moves to the pressure side with a continuous decay. When the rotating stall occurs, the amplitude of the pressure fluctuation is much larger than that under the alternative stall condition. The propagation of the stall cells has a significant effect on the pressure fluctuations in the impeller.