Performance Characteristics and Energy Loss Analyses of a High-Speed Centrifugal Pump with Straight Blades

Along with the rapid growth of cutting-edge petrochemical technology and the pressing demand for efficiency improvement, evaluation of the performance characteristics of high-speed pump is becoming increasingly important. In this paper, numerical simulation is presented on the flow instability of a 16 straight-blade highspeed centrifugal pump with flow rate of 3 m3/h and rotating speed of 8500 rpm. Combined with the analysis of flow stability, the entropy production method is introduced to evaluate regions of high mechanical energy loss and its distribution at different flow rates. Results show that approximately 96% of the energy loss of the pump is produced in the volute, gap, and front and back chambers. Large energy loss is observed near the trailing edge of the blade and volute tongue, which are caused by the small region including both the high and low pressure gradients and large momentum exchange by the flow separation, respectively. Moreover, the rotor–stator interaction causes much energy loss at the wall of the volute and front and back chambers. Owing to the circumferential pressure gradient and the 90° leading edge of the straight blade, the fluid tends to form counter-rotating recirculation vortices. The large number of blades narrows the passage and limits the formation of large vortices in flow channels, thus the backflow phenomenon seems not to worsen with the rise of flow rates. Hence, the entropy production in most of the flow parts are insensitive to flow rates.