Flow instability of a centrifugal pump determined using the energy gradient method

The stability of the centrifugal pump has not been well revealed because of the complexity of internal flow. To analyze the flow characteristics of a centrifugal pump operating at low capacity, methods of numerical simulation and experimental research were adopted in this paper. Characteristics of the inner flow were obtained. Standard k-ɛ turbulence models were used to calculate the inner flow of the pump under off-design conditions. The distribution of the energy gradient function K was obtained by three-dimensional numerical simulation at different flow rates. The relative velocity component was acquired from the absolute velocity obtained in particle image velocimetry. By comparing with experimental results, it was found that flow instability occurs at the position of maximum K. The flow stability reduces with an increasing flow rate. The research results provide a theoretical basis for the optimization design of a centrifugal pump.