International Journal of JOURNAL Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 INTERNATIONAL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 6340(Print), ISSN

N 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 3, May - June (2013) IAEME AND TECHNOLOGY (IJMET)

ISSN 0976 6340 (Print) ISSN 0976 6359 (Online) Volume 4, Issue 3, May - June (2013), pp. 359-366 IAEME: www.iaeme.com/ijmet.asp Journal Impact Factor (2013): 5.7731 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com

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NUMERICAL ANALYSIS ON EFFECT OF EXIT BLADE ANGLE ON CAVITATION IN CENTRIFUGAL PUMP

Shalin Marathe M.E. (CAD/CAM) Mechanical Engineering Department Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Technology, VASAD Rishi Saxena Assistant Professor Mechanical Engineering Department Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Technology, VASAD

ABSTRACT This paper presents the effect of outlet blade angle on cavitation in centrifugal pump. The experiment is performed on a centrifugal pump test rig consisting of backward bladed impeller at different operating conditions and characteristics of the pump are predicted. Modeling of the centrifugal pump along with the different configuration of the impeller having different exit blade angles is carried out using Creo Parametric. Numerical simulation is carried out using ANSYS CFX and standard k- turbulence model is implemented for the analysis purpose. Cavitation is clearly predicted in the form of water vapor formation inside the centrifugal pump from the simulation results. Analytical analysis is carried out in order to find out NPSHr of the pump and Cavitation number (c) which indicates the cavitation phenomenon in the centrifugal pump. From the results it has been found that the pump having low value of the blade exit angle will have less chances of getting affected by the cavitation phenomenon. KEY WORDS: ANSYS CFX, Cavitation, Cavitation number, Centrifugal pump, NPSHr, Numerical Simulation, Turbulence Model k-. 1 INTRODUCTION In centrifugal pump, an increase in the fluid pressure from the pump inlet to its outlet occurs during operation. This pressure difference developed in the pump drives the fluid through the system. The centrifugal pump creates an increase in pressure by transferring
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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 3, May - June (2013) IAEME

mechanical energy from the motor to the fluid through the rotating impeller as shown in figure 1. Centrifugal pump faces a problem of cavitation. In general, cavitation occurs when the liquid pressure at a given location is reduced to the vapor pressure of the liquid. Cavitation begins when the absolute pressure at the inlet falls below the vapor pressure of the water. This phenomenon may occur at the inlet to a pump and on the impeller blades, particularly if the pump is mounted above the level in the suction reservoir. Under this condition, vapor bubbles form at the impeller inlet and when these bubbles are carried into a zone of higher pressure, they collapse abruptly and hit the vanes of the impeller, near the tips of the impeller vanes causing damage to the pump impeller, violet vibrations and noise, reduce pump capacity, reduce pump efficiency.

Figure 1 Centrifugal pump W.G.Li [1] stated that the blade discharge angle has a strong but equal influence on the head, shaft power and efficiency of the centrifugal oil pump for various viscosities of liquids pumped. The rapid reduction in the hydraulic and mechanical efficiencies is responsible for the pump performance degradation with increasing viscosity of liquids. E.C.Bacharoudis et al [2] found that as the outlet blade angle increases the performance curve becomes smoother and flatter. But M.H.S.Fard et al [3] stated that pump performance goes down when the pump handles high viscosity working fluids because high viscosity results in disc friction losses over outside of the impeller. SHI Weidong et al[4] investigated that the oversize impeller outlet width leads to poor pump performances and increasing shaft power. Cavitation also affect the performance of the pump and it must be avoided. D.Somashekar et al [5] suggested that in order to avoid the cavitation available NPSH of the system must be equal to or greater than the NPSH required by the centrifugal pump and similar recommendations were given by the M.K.Abbas [6]. A.Stuparu et al [7] performed numerical investigation of the multiphase flow inside the storage pump which underlines the fact that the pumping head drops due to the development of cavitation phenomena. A.Goto et al [8] found that at the high flow rate cavitation bubbles appear at the leading edge on pressure side incipiently and the head drops gradually. J.B.Jonker et al [9] suggested that cavitation inception for the forward swept impellers occurs at half-span of the leading-edge, while it occurs close to the shroud for the backward-swept impeller. Also It has been found that the backward bladed impeller gives the highest efficiency to the centrifugal pump in compare to the forward and radial bladed impeller. But the energy transfer is less for the backward bladed impeller in comparisons of radial and the forward bladed impeller.
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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 3, May - June (2013) IAEME

2 EXPERIMENTATION Experiment is carried out at different operating conditions on the centrifugal pump having the backward bladed impeller. The figure 2 shows the test rig of the centrifugal pump and table 1 shows the specification cification of the pump test rig.

Figure 2 Centrifugal pump test rig Table 1 Centrifugal Test rig specification Pump Total Head 12 m Discharge 1.5 lps Speed 2900 rpm Motor 1 HP Measuring Tank 400 400 450 mm Height Sump tank SIMULATION 3 MODELING AND SIMULATIONS Creo Parametric 1.0 version is used for geometric modeling of the impeller having different blade angles and the casing. The figure 3 and figure 4 shows the Creo model of the Impeller and the casing of the centrifugal pump respectively. 600 900 600 mm Height

Figure 3 Creo model of impeller

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Figure 4 Creo model of casing

International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 3, May - June (2013) IAEME

ANSYS CFX (14.0) is the simulation tool which is used for the numerical analysis of the centrifugal pump. Meshing is carried out using the Auto Mesh feature of the ANSYS WORKBENCH, which is shown in the figure 5 which indicates that the tetrahedrons a are used as the elements and the he number of nodes and the elements generated are 77542 and 419333 respectively during the mesh. To predict the complex behavior of the flows inside the pump standard k- model is adopted.

Figure 5 Meshing of the model One of the major advantages of the ANSYS is that the user can give the boundary conditions close to the actual operating conditions. Analysis is carried out in a Steady state condition taking 1 atmospheric as the reference pressure. Rotating velocity is provided to the impeller along the Z direction. Two fluids namely as Water and Water vapor are selected in order to determine the formation of vapors inside the pump. At inlet and and outlet pressure conditions are provided and the discharge of the pump is determined from the simulation in order to match with the experimental. 5 NUMERICAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS After the completion of the solver part of the simulation, results like pressure contours and the water vapor formation contours are generated as shown in the figure for the different discharge conditions like 1.5, 5 and 10 lps, for all the configurations of the impellers.

(a) 20 degree bladed impeller

(b) 30 degree bladed impeller

(c) 40 degree bladed impeller

(d) 60 degree bladed impeller

(e) 70 degree bladed impeller

(f) 80 degree bladed impeller

Figure 6 Water vapor contours at 1.5 lps

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 3, May - June (2013) IAEME

Figure 6 and 8 shows phenomenon of water ater vapor formation at 1.5 lps and 5 lps respectively It indicates that at higher exit blade angle, the volume occupied by the water vapor is more as compare to lower exit blade angle. Also thing should be noted that for a particular blade angle the volume occupied by the water vapor at at 5 lps is more than the 1.5 lps. As s the density of the water is competitiv competitively ely higher than the water vapor, the water vapors are settled on the upper side of the casing and the impeller. impeller

(a) 20 degree bladed impeller

(b) 30 degree bladed impeller

(c) c) 40 degree bladed impeller

(d) 60 degree bladed impeller

(e) 70 degree bladed impeller

(f) 80 degree bladed impeller

Figure 7 Pressure contours at 1.5 lps

(a) 20 degree bladed impeller

(b) 30 impeller

degree

bladed (c) 40 degree bladed impeller

(d) 60 degree bladed impeller

(e) 70 degree bladed impeller

(f) 80 degree bladed impeller

Figure 8 Water vapor contour contours at 5 lps Figure 7 and 9 shows the pressure variation variation across the centrifugal pump at 1.5 lps and 5 lps. On analyzing the pressure contours, higher pressure is observed at the discharge section
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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 3, May - June (2013) IAEME

on varying the blade angle gle from 20 degree to 80 degree in both the condition of 1.5 lps and 5 lps. Due to the increased discharge there is no pressure difference in 20 20 degree bladed impeller from inlet section to discharge section. The The pressure developed inside the pump at 5 lps is less than the 1.5 lps for pump having 20 degree impeller. . So there is a decrease in pressure development inside the centrifugal pump as we increases the discharge. So that may lead to the low pressure regions and also to the cavitation phenomenon. There is gradual rise in pressure from inlet section to outlet section for all other configuration of the blade angles. Since in the impeller section ion there is no change in pressure, it will lead to the phenomenon of recirculation and back flow will continue until the desired pressure is attainable. A low pressure region is observed near the tongue section of the casing due to formation of eddies.

(a) 20 degree bladed impeller

(b) 30 degree bladed impeller

(c) 40 degree bladed impeller

(d) 60 degree bladed impeller

(g)70 degree bladed impeller

(h) 80 degree bladed impeller

Figure 9 Pressure Contour Contours at 5 lps

2.5
EXPERIMENTATION

SIMULATION

1.5 1 NPSHr

0.5 0

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 0.002 0.004 0.006

DISCHARGE (lps)

10

12

EXPERIMENT NUMBER
Q (DISCHARGE) (m3/sec)

Figure 10 Result comparison

Figure 11NPSHr vs. Discharge

Figure 10 shows the good agreement of the simulation results with the experimental results. Figure 11 shows the effect of discharge on to the value of NPSHr (Net Positive Suction Head required). ed). It indicates that as the value of the he discharge increases the NPSHr
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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 3, May - June (2013) IAEME

will also increase and that will l lead to the cavitation phenomenon. So all the pump should be operated with in its range of design flow rate. Figure 12 shows the effect of different discharge conditions on to the cavitation number which shows that as the discharge increases the cavitation number increases and that is nothing but the indication of cavitation phenomenon. Also with increase in the cavitation number the head of the pump will decrease along with the e performance. For all the configurations of the blade exit angles similar behavior is observed.

35
20 DEGREE

30
30 DEGREE

25

CAVITATION NUMBER

20 15 10

40 DEGREE

60 DEGREE

70 DEGREE

5
80 DEGREE

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

-5
DISCHARGE (LPS)

Figure 12 Cavitation number vs. Discharge For Different blade configuration

CONCLUSIONS It can be concluded from the results that the use of impeller having low exit blade angle is much efficient than the impeller having higher exit blade angle because the phenomenon of the cavitation is identified for higher exit blade angles in the contours obtained from the simulation. Since the cavitation phenomenon is undesirable for the pump it will lead to the erosion of the impeller material, that will reduce the efficiency, discharge, head in a drastic manner. Hence, if we use the blade angle in a range of 20 degree to 30 degree it provides efficient conditions for operating the centrifugal pump. REFERENCES [1] Wen-Guang Guang LI Blade Exit Angle Effects on Performance of a Standard Industrial Centrifugal Oil Pump- Department Of Civil And Environmental Engineering Cvng 1001: Mechanics Of Fluids. [2] E.C. Bacharoudis, , A.E. Filios, M.D. Mentzos And D.P. MargarisMargaris " Parametric Study Of A Centrifugal Pump Impeller By Varying The Outlet Blade Angle In The Open Mechanical Engineering Journal, 2008, 2, 75-83. 75 [3] M.H.S.Fard And F.A.Bhoyaghchi Studies On The Influence Of f The Various Blade Outlet Angles In A Centrifugal Pump When Handling Viscous Fluid" In American Journal Of Applied Science 2007.
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[4] SHI Weidong, ZHOU Ling*, LU Weigang, PEI Bing, and LANG Tao-" Numerical Prediction and Performance Experiment in a Deep well Centrifugal Pump with Different Impeller Outlet Width"- CHINESE JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Vol. 26,No.-2013 [5] Mr. D. Somashekar1, Dr. H. R. Purushothama Numerical Simulation Of Cavitation Hysteresis On Radial Flow Pump" In IOSR Journal Of Mechanical And Civil Engineering (Iosrjmce) Issn : 2278-1684 Volume 1, Issue 5 (July-august 2012), Pp 2126 Www.iosrjournals.Org [6] Stuparu, Romeo Susan-resiga, Liviu Eugen Anton And Sebastian Muntean-" A New Approach In Numerical Assessment Of The Cavitation Behavior Of Centrifugal Pumps In International Journal Of Fluid Machinery And Systems Vol. 4, No. 1, January-march 2011. [7] Motohiko Nohmi , A. Goto Cavitation CFD In A Centrifugal Pump Fifth International Symposium On Cavitation (Cav2003),osaka, Japan, November 1-4, 2003. [8] J.B. Jonker, M. J. Van Os , J. G.H. Op De Woerd "A Parametric Study Of The Cavitation Inception Behavior Of A Mixed-flow Pump Impeller Using A Threedimensional Potential Flow Model" In The 1997 ASME Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting Fedsm97 June 2226, 1997. [9] Manish Dadhich, Dharmendra Hariyani and Tarun Singh, Flow Simulation (CFD) & Fatigue Analysis (Fea) of a Centrifugal Pump, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering & Technology (IJMET), Volume 3, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 67 - 83, ISSN Print: 0976 6340, ISSN Online: 0976 6359. [11] V. Muralidharan, V.Sugumaran and Gaurav Pandey, Svm Based Fault Diagnosis of Monoblock Centrifugal Pump using Stationary Wavelet Features, International Journal of Design and Manufacturing Technology (IJDMT), Volume 2, Issue 1, 2011, pp. 1 - 6, ISSN Print: 0976 6995, ISSN Online: 0976 7002. [12] V. Muralidharan, V. Sugumaran, P. Shanmugam and K. Sivanathan, Artificial Neural Network Based Classification for Monoblock Centrifugal Pump using Wavelet Analysis, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering & Technology (IJMET), Volume 1, Issue 1, 2010, pp. 28 - 37, ISSN Print: 0976 6340, ISSN Online: 0976 6359.

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