Experiments on the unsteady flow field and noise generation in a centrifugal pump impeller

This paper reports on an experimental investigation of large-scale flowfield instabilities in a pump rotor and the process of noise generation by these instabilities. Measurements of the fluctuating components of velocity and surface pressure were made with hot-wire probes and surface mounted pressure transducers on a seven bladed back swept centrifugal water pump impeller operating with air as the working fluid. The impeller was operated without a volute or scroll diffuser, thereby eliminating any sound generation from pressure fluctuations on the volute cutoff. Thus the study focused on flow field and noise components other than the blade passage frequency (and its harmonics). The primary goal of the study was to provide fundamental information on the unsteady flow processes, particularly those associated with the noise generation in the device. It was further anticipated that detailed flow measurements would be useful for the validation of future computational simulations. The measured data at the discharge show a jet-wake type of flow pattern which results in a strong vorticity field. The flow with high velocity found on the pressure side of the impeller tends to move to the low-pressure region present at the suction side of the passage as a form of roll-up around the blade trailing edge. This motion causes an unsteady flow separation at the suction side of the blade and consequently disturbs the flow in the adjacent passage. By interacting with the impeller blades near the trailing edges, this instability flow causes a periodic pressure fluctuation on the blade surface and generates noise by a trailing edge generation mechanism. The spectrum of surface pressure measured at the trailing edge of each blade reveals a cluster of peaks which were identified with azimuthal mode numbers. The correlation between the acoustic farfield pressure and the surface pressure on the impeller blade has proven that the azimuthal modes synchronized with the number of impeller blades generate noise much more efficiently than the other modes. The paper also clarifies the correlation between unsteady flowfield measurements, in both impeller and laboratory co-ordinates, with the radiated noise properties. Thus some light is shed on the noise generation mechanisms of this particular device. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.