The flow field in a centrifugal pump with a large tongue gap and back blades

In this paper, the unsteady 3-D turbulent flow fields in an end-suction centrifugal pump with a vaneless volute are studied numerically at three different rotation speeds. The unshrouded impeller of the pump, as a reduced diameter version of the original full-size impeller, has five backswept blades and five pump-out blades. The results show that the flow rate and pressure vary with the rotational speed according to the similarity law, and the normalized internal flow fields at all speeds are very similar. Due to the reduced impeller diameter, the pump efficiency is relatively low. Flows discharged from the front and back blade passages interfere with each other and swirling motion exists in the volute. The pressure fluctuations on the casing wall near the impeller outlet are extracted, and their spectra show that the component at the blade passing frequency was prominent. This study sheds some light on the characteristics of the internal unsteady flow of a centrifugal pump at different rotational speeds, and forms a basis for future study of flow induced pump vibration and noise.