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Article history: Cavitation is a greatly harmful flow phenomenon for nuclear centrifugal pumps, and it should be attached
Received 24 May 2016 importance when the pump is designed. Under cavitating conditions the flow patterns in the pump are
Received in revised form 27 June 2016 complex and highly turbulent flow can be induced. In this paper the flow characteristics in the impeller
Accepted 6 July 2016
passage of a nuclear centrifugal pump model were systematically investigated under steady and transient
Available online 27 July 2016
cavitation conditions. At moderate cavitation levels the results show that the fluctuations of the radial
force on the impeller are mainly affected by rotor-stator interaction effects, but are strongly influenced
Keywords:
by cavitation under developed cavitation conditions. At inception vapor is mainly generated near the
Nuclear centrifugal pump
Flow characteristic
leading edge of the blade, and spreads on the suction side of the impeller at higher cavitation levels.
Fluctuation The vapor generation, development and burst under transient cavitation conditions have a strong influ-
Cavitation ence on the flow patterns in the impeller passage. The trends of the simulations are in accordance with
Numerical simulation the measured results, thus confirming the validity of the numerical model used for predicting the char-
acteristics of the flow through the impeller.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2016.07.011
0306-4549/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Q. Fu et al. / Annals of Nuclear Energy 97 (2016) 190197 191
Nomenclature
investigated the transient flow induced by speed-changes and a suitable number of grid elements is very important for the sim-
rapid openings of the discharge valve in centrifugal pumps. ulation. The predicted head performance of the pump with 4 differ-
Zhang et al. (2014a,b) numerically simulated the transient flow ent numbers of grid elements are compared in Fig. 2 and the detail
patterns of a nuclear centrifugal pump during changes of its oper- of various grid meshes are reported in Table 2. In general, the head
ating conditions at constant rotating speed. of the model pump increases with the number of grid elements
The above investigations only represent a small fraction of the increases. However, the head obtained for grid number 4 only
information available in open literature on transient cavitation in increases by less than 1 m with the respect to the results of grid
centrifugal pumps. However, the adverse effects induced by tran- number 3, while the head discrepancies for the other grids are sig-
sient cavitation in pumps are extremely serious, and cannot be nificantly larger. Therefore grid number 3 was selected in the pre-
ignored in the design process. Therefore, the flow characteristics sent simulations. Fig. 3 shows an overview of partial mesh of the
under both steady and transient cavitation conditions are investi- flow passage, especially the main parts of the geometric structure.
gated in our present study, whose results hopefully represent a The Zwart-Gerber-Belamri model, as expressed by (1) and (2),
useful reference for further research work. proved to yield better precision for cavitation simulation (Zwart
et al., 2004), has and therefore been selected in the present work.
2. Physical model s
3anuc 1 av ap qv ap 2 pv ap p
Re F v ap ; p < pv ap 1
The pump model is a centrifugal charging pump, which is an RB 3 ql
important component of the reactor coolant system of nuclear
power plants. Cavitation usually occurs in the first stage of the s
multi-stage centrifugal charging pumps. Therefore, in the present
3av ap qv ap 2 p pv ap
Rc F cond ; p > pv ap 2
study, only the stationary domains including the annual suction RB 3 ql
chamber and the double-channel volute, the rotating domain of
The SST k-x turbulence model is a hybrid model combining
the first impeller stage have been selected as the physical model in
the advantages of the standard k-x and k-e turbulence models.
order to investigate its cavitation characteristics. The main geomet-
The viscous flow near the wall and the turbulence fully developed
ric and hydraulic specifications of the pump are reported in Table 1.
turbulent region can be accurately modeled using the standard k-x
It is required NPSHr 6 7.8 m according to the CVC system in a nuclear
and standard k-e turbulence models, respectively. As a result, the
power plant at the maximum flow rate Qmax = 160 m3/h. The flow
SST k-x turbulence model was applied in this investigation to
domains of the centrifugal charging pump with its first stage
solve the RANS functions.
impeller have been modeled by Pro/E, as shown in Fig. 1.
The average static pressure has been specified at the inlet of the
suction chamber, with uniform normal flow running into the inlet
3. Numerical approach section. The mass flow rate has been assigned at the outlet of the
double-channel volute. The impeller domain rotated with speed
The RANS equations have been performed by using the ANSYS
CFX 14.5 software, which uses a multi-block technique to couple
the separate numerical domains. A high mesh quality is required Table 1
in the numerical simulations for improving the precision of the Specifications of the pump model.
results and reducing the computational time. All parts of the pump Geometric specifications Hydraulic specifications
model have been meshed with structured hexahedral grids, and Inlet diameter (mm) D1 140 Nominal speed (r/min) n 4500
the meshes of boundary layers have been thickened. Generally Outlet diameter (mm) D2 236 Design flow rate (m3/h) Qd 110
speaking, the calculated error caused by the mesh are reduced by Outlet width (mm) b2 12 Maximum efficiency g P60%
increasing the number of gird elements, but excessive computer Wrap angle (deg) u 135 Maximum flow rate (m3/h) Qmax 160
Blade number Z 4 Net positive suction head NPSHr 67.8
memory and running time are required in the numerical
required(m)
simulation if the grid number is too large. Hence the selection of
192 Q. Fu et al. / Annals of Nuclear Energy 97 (2016) 190197
Table 3
Test precision standard of grade 2 in China.
Contents Q H P g
Uncertainty 62.0% 61.5% 61.5% 62.8%
4. Experimental results
Table 2
Grid detail of 4 schemes. 4.1. Hydraulic performance
Schemes Scheme 1 Scheme 2 Scheme 3 Scheme 4
The measured head and efficiency are compared in Fig. 5 with
Grid number 954372 1572531 2067148 2611692
their simulated values, and the uncertainty of the measured head,
Heads/m 109.6 118.3 122.1 122.9
efficiency is 0.51%, 0.65% respectively. Both the measured head and
efficiency exceed the designed values at the 1.0Qd operating
n = 4500 r/min, while the other domains were stationary. A med- condition. The measured head is larger than its design head Hd over
ium turbulence intensity of 5% has been set at the inlet section most of the flow rate range, and the measured efficiency is also
and a non-slipping boundary condition has been imposed on all higher than its design value at flow rates from 0.85Qd to 1.6Qd.
solid surfaces. The steady simulated results supplied the suitable The simulated results of the head and efficiency are both higher
initial conditions for transient runs. than their test values and the maximum deviation is about 6% of
0.96 dance with the measured data with a reasonable value (3.8%) of the
Measured result
0.92
0.88
0.84
0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3
NPSH / NPSHr
relative error. The main reason for the deviation is that the leakage, cavitation (3% head drop), serious cavitation (6% head drop) and
frictions and other flow loss were not considered in the simulation. fractured cavitation (head breakdown), respectively corresponding
to the NPSH values equal to 7.2 m, 6.5 m, 6.12 m, 5.9 m and 5.8 m.
5. Results and discussion Fig. 7 shows the schematic view of the X and Y axes in the impeller
axial plane. The radial force along X and Y axes under the different
5.1. Radial forces along the X and Y axes cavitation regimes are discussed in this section, and all the results
were obtained from numerical simulation.
According to the specifications of the nuclear power plant the Fig. 8 shows the radial force fluctuations along the X and Y axial
required NPSHr of the centrifugal charging pump cannot exceed directions under the above five different cavitation regimes. Fig. 8
7.8 m at the maximum flow rate of Q = 160 m3/h. The development (a), (b) and (c) indicate a certain level of periodicity of the radial
of cavitation in the pump at Q = 160 m3/h has been conventionally force fluctuations, with the force along the Y direction larger than
divided into five regimes, indicated here as incipient cavitation in the X direction. The two tongues of the double-channel volute
(0% head drop), developing cavitation (1% head drop), critical are located along the Y axis. Most of the flow unsteadiness occurs
200 Fx Fy 200 Fx Fy
150 150
100 100
50 50
F/N
F/N
0 0
-50 -50
-100 -100
-150 -150
-200 -200
0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04
t/s t/s
(a) Incipient cavitation (0% head drop) (b) Developing cavitation (1% head drop)
200 Fx Fy 200 Fx Fy
150 150
100 100
50 50
F/N
0
F/N
-50 -50
-100 -100
-150 -150
-200 -200
0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04
t/s t/s
(c) Critical cavitation (3% head drop) (d) Serious cavitation (6% head drop)
200
Fx Fy
150
100
50
F/N
-50
-100
-150
-200
0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04
t/s
(e) Fractured cavitation (head breakdown)
Fig. 8. Radial forces on the X and Y axes under different cavitation conditions.
Q. Fu et al. / Annals of Nuclear Energy 97 (2016) 190197 195
Cp
ous cavitation regime, large amounts of vapor are generated in the
flow passage and their motion and development greatly influence 0.2
the radial forces along the X and Y axes, which become disorderly
0.1
and aperiodic. Beyond the critical cavitation regime the effects on
the flow pattern become dominant, and finally in the fractured cav- 0.0
itation regime the flow unsteadiness is mainly caused by cavitation
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
rather than rotor-stator interaction phenomenon.
t/s
5.2. Flow characteristics in the transient cavitation regime Fig. 10. Transient static pressure in the impeller.
1.6
A B C D
1.5
1.4
1.3
Cv
1.2
1.1
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
t/s
Fig. 9. Monitoring points on the impeller. Fig. 11. Transient relative velocity in the impeller.
196 Q. Fu et al. / Annals of Nuclear Energy 97 (2016) 190197
0.5
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regard-
A B C D ing the publication of this paper.
0.4
Acknowledgement
0.3
fv
0.2
This study is financially supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51379091, No. 51239005
0.1 and No. 51509108), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
of China (Grant No. BK20140554, No. SBK2015042921), Postdoc-
0.0 toral Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 156993) and Priority
Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Insti-
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
tutions (PAPD). The supports are gratefully acknowledged.
t/s
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