Numerical and experimental study on the hydraulic characteristics of a vertical axial pump under various clearances of flare tube

In order to investigate the characteristics of a vertical axial flow pump under various clearances of flare tube, the bell-shaped inlet and box culvert outlet channels with flare tube are studied numerically and experimentally. Then, the cases of inlet and outlet channels with the least hydraulic loss are selected to form an integral pump system, for which both numerical simulation and experimental investigation are carried out. The numerical results agree well with the experimental data. It is shown that the clearances of the interfaces between different components of the pump system have a significant impact on the internal flow structure, turbulent entropy and hydraulic performance of the inlet and outlet channels. For the cases of normalized bottom clearance less than 0.5 and normalized top clearance larger than 0.4, the internal flow and hydraulic performance indexes of inlet and outlet channels are relatively poor. There also exists a critical clearance in either inlet or outlet channel at which the hydraulic loss reaches the maximum. The results serve as an important reference for the design as well as safe and efficient operation of the vertical axial flow pump system.