Analysis of inlet flow passage conditions and their influence on the performance of an axial-flow pump

The inlet flow conditions will directly affect impeller performance, which is of great concern to pump designers. In this study, based on two axial-flow pump devices, the influence of the evaluation criteria of inlet flow conditions and numerical grid scales on the accuracy of the simulation are investigated, the correctness of the numerical simulation are verified by experiments. The axial velocity distribution uniformity, axial velocity weighted average angle and hydraulic loss are calculated with three grid scales commonly used in engineering. The applicability of three turbulence models in engineering is verified. The influence of the uniformity of the axial velocity distribution on the impeller is quantitatively explored by installing a group of vortex generators. The results show that the simulation errors of the common formula of the axial velocity distribution uniformity for the elbow inlet passage and front-shaft tubular inlet passage are 16.3% and 14.6%, respectively; the modified formula limited the computational error to 0.2%, which reduced the axial velocity distribution uniformity dependence on the grid. The quantitative relationship between inlet flow conditions and pump performance was established, as the impeller efficiency decreased linearly with decreasing axial velocity distribution uniformity.