Apem15 3 - 295 306
Apem15 3 - 295 306
Apem15 3 - 295 306
1. Introduction
The generation of cavitation can cause severe damage in hydraulic machinery. In liquid flows, the
vaporization of liquid is generally due to the local pressure becomes lower than the saturated
vapor pressure [1]. Volute pumps are among the most used centrifugal pump types, mainly in
mining, petrochemical, and paper industries. Cavitation is a major undesirable phenomenon,
which occurs in the operation of centrifugal pumps [2]. The occurrence of cavitation in passages
affects the energy change between the wall surface and liquid, which leads to the breakdown of
performance, surface erosion, and even the equipment failure [3, 4]. In case of centrifugal
pumps, the cavitation inception generally takes place on the suction surface of the blades near
their leading edge, and the cavity presents an asymmetrical feature, which is caused by the inter‐
action between the blade and tongue of volute.
On this basis, cavitation in centrifugal pumps have been extensively studied [5‐12]. Most stud‐
ies mainly focused on the cavitation detection in impellers and performance improvement
through the application of cavitating flow simulation. However, only a few studies on the cavita‐
295
Hu, Yang, Cao
tion at the tongue of volute have been conducted based on visualization experiment and simula‐
tion computation. At overload conditions, flow separation, characterized by unsteady vortex
shedding from the tongue, causes the low pressure zone near the tongue. The present study
deals with a special case, where cavitation near the tongue of the volute occurs prior to the cavi‐
tation at the leading edge of blades. The head drop curve also has a knee shape that head remain
constant with the decrease of NPSH and rapidly decreases at critical point. In this case the break‐
down of performance due to cavitation at the tongue rather than cavitation in impeller. With
pressure fluctuation and visualization experiment, and combining numerical simulation, the cavi‐
tation structure at the tongue and its influence to the flow field in impeller was investigated. The
results were then compared to provide a reference for the optimum design of centrifugal pump.
diagnose the cavitation phenomenon within a centrifugal pump. With various flow rates and
rotational speed, the signals presented similar statistical features and revealed that using low‐
frequency was sensitive to predict cavitation in the pump. By means of unsteady numerical com‐
putation, Tang et al. [23] found that the blade passing frequency is the dominant frequency of the
pressure fluctuations in the casing except the vicinity of the volute tongue for all operating con‐
ditions, and the dominant one near the volute tongue is the blade passing frequency at the de‐
sign point and 0~0.5 times the blade passing frequency at other off‐design points. Dö nmez et al.
[24] and Tao et al. [25] investigated the influence of geometric parameters of blade inlet on cavi‐
tation phenomenon of the centrifugal pump. Cavitation performance of pump is excessively af‐
fected by both blade inlet angle and blade leading‐edge shape. Increasing hub blade angle has
slightly negative effect on cavitation performance of the pump, and the round and ellipse lead‐
ing‐edge impellers have higher inception cavitation coefficient than the ones with blunt or sharp
leading‐edge. Alex et al. [26] compiled an overview on the effect of cavitation in the performance
of centrifugal pump. They took account of parameters such as blade numbers, blade angle, inlet
flow angle, flow rates, and inlet and outlet pressure. These parameters all have influence on the
cavitation performance, however the casing type or the tongue shape were not considered
Above research results indicate that the evolution of cavitation causes the performance dete‐
rioration of centrifugal pump and the development of cavitation cloud in passages usually
emerges at the suction side of blade leading edge. During the experiment, the pump was operat‐
ing at overload flow rate and cavitation condition leading to 3 % head drop. Detailed observa‐
tions of cavity evolution near the tongue of casing were made when no obvious cavitation occurs
within the impeller. On the basis of numerical simulation and hydraulic testing, this study ex‐
plored cavitation structure and flow field in the vicinity of the tongue of the volute casing to pro‐
vide guidance for the optimization design of centrifugal pumps.
(1)
where pin is the static pressure at the impeller inlet, pv is the saturated vapor pressure, taken as 3574
Pa, vin is the absolute velocity at the impeller inlet.
13 11.5
12
11.0
11
10.5
H/m
H/m
10 studied flow rate NPSH3%
10.0
9
8 9.5
7 9.0
0.0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2.0 2.4 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Q/Qd NPSH/m
(a) (b)
Fig. 4 External characteristic curve of the model pump
The pressure fluctuation in rotating hydraulic machinery can be divided into three types, name‐
ly, random pressure, blade multifrequency, and axial multifrequency fluctuations. The random
pressure fluctuation is induced by cavitation, eddies, and unsteady secondary flows. It is similar
with white noise on the spectrum. The blade frequency fluctuation has a multiple relation with
blade passing frequency and is related to rotor‐stator interaction. The shaft frequency fluctua‐
tion is related to mechanical speed. In this study, the rotational speed of the centrifugal pump
was 1,450 rpm. The patterns of time and frequency domains at Q/Qd = 1.52 and NPSH3% = 1.5 m
are shown in Fig. 5. The domain pressure fluctuation in the flow field at the volute downstream
is mainly blade passing frequency.
128 6
126
124 4
pout/Kpa
122
2
120
118
0
116
The high‐speed photography results at the tongue of the pump model at Q/Qd = 1.52 are
shown in Fig. 6. Figure 6 shows that: a) A large cavitation structure is developed at the leading
edge of the tongue when the blade leaves the observation range, b)The cavitation cloud at the
leading edge of the tongue develops quickly and sheds when the next blade appears in the visual
frame, c) The flow regime deteriorates, and many bubbles begin to develop at the leading edge
when the blade approaches the tongue, d) The cavitation cloud at the tongue tends to attach on
the cavities when the blade is close to the tongue position, e) The cavitation cloud rapidly blocks
the flow passage near the tongue because the blade leaves the tongue and moves to the down‐
stream areas, significantly influencing the energy transmission in the volute.
a b c d e
Fig. 6 Cavitation evolution at the volute tongue
A centrifugal pump with a helical pumping chamber can generate a radial force that acts
on the impeller during operation. Thus, the axis bears alternating stresses and generates a
directed deflection. The pressure in the chamber of the centrifugal pump continuously
changes due to the interference by the impeller and the tongue of the volute, thereby gener‐
ating unsteady radial forces. The existence of cavitation may affect the radial forces. The
vector diagram of radial force distribution on the impeller in a single cycle under different
flow rates is shown in Fig. 10. Cavitation occurs at the impeller inlet when Q/Qd = 1.3 and
1.52. However, the radial force distributions at the critical cavitation state are basically con‐
sistent under three working conditions. The radial force distribution is related to the num‐
ber of blades and is in hexagonal star distribution. This condition is caused by the interfer‐
ence of the impeller and the volute. At Q/Qd = 1.3, the vector diagrams under critical cavita‐
tion and non‐cavitation conditions are close. At Q/Qd = 1.52 and 1.73, the radial forces pro‐
duce alternating stresses under cavitation conditions when the blade sweeps the separation
tongue.
150
150 150
Fy/N Fy/N
Fy/N cavitation
100 100 non-cavitation
100
50 50 50
The secondary flows and “jet wake” phenomenon are caused by the high‐speed rotation of the
impeller, interference between the impeller and the volute, and the viscosity of fluid due to the
spatial asymmetric structure of the centrifugal pump. The internal flow field presents complicat‐
ed unsteady characteristics that may cause pressure fluctuation. The circumferential pressure
fluctuation of the volute and pressure fluctuation near the tongue are influenced and present
different characteristics when cavitation emerges at the tongue. The monitoring points of pres‐
sure fluctuation in the volute are shown in Fig. 11.
The pressure amplitude of pressure pulsation in the volute is characterized, and the influ‐
ences of the static pressure of monitoring points on pressure fluctuation are eliminated. The
strength of pressure fluctuation is expressed as pressure coefficient Cp
(4)
where p is the instantaneous pressure value at the monitoring points, and is the mean pressure
of monitoring points in the investigated cycle.
The time domain of monitoring points P1‐P9 when Q/Qd = 1.3, 1.52, and 1.73 is shown in Fig.
12. The pressure fluctuation intensity increases significantly with the increase of flow rate. Alt‐
hough the number of wave peaks at different monitoring points in a single cycle is equal to the
number of blades, the regularity in a single cycle weakens with the increase of flow rate. At Q/Qd =
1.3, the pressure fluctuation at different monitoring points shows evident periodic fluctuation
laws. The fluctuation amplitudes at different monitoring points are close, except for the monitor‐
ing points at the downstream of the tongue. Considering that all monitoring points are close to
the flow field at the impeller outlet, the pressure fluctuation is caused by the jet‐wake structure
at the passage outlet of the impeller, and the fluctuation amplitudes are similar. At Q/Qd = 1.73,
irregular wave peaks are found, indicating the occurrence of serious cavitation close to the
tongue. Therefore, the flow field becomes extremely disordered.
The multiplication of rotating frequency is defined as
(5)
where F is the practical frequency after Fourier transform, n is the rotating speed of the impeller,
and Fn is the rotating frequency under the corresponding rotating speed.
As shown in Fig. 13, the excitation frequency at different monitoring points is the blade pass‐
ing frequency under different flow rates. The shaft frequency and other low‐frequency and high‐
frequency bands have small amplitudes. This finding reveals that the pressure fluctuation caused
by the “jet wake” flow structure under high flow rate is the main excitation frequency. With the
increase in flow rate, the pressure fluctuation strength increases significantly. In particular, a
magnitude of jumps of pulsation strength is found after the cavitation occurs at the tongue. At
Q/Qd = 1.3, the pressure fluctuation is weak. The main excitation frequency first decreases and
then increases from the first to the eighth sections. The pressure fluctuation strength declines as
the monitoring point moves away from the tongue. At Q/Qd = 1.52 and 1.73, the cavitation in the
volute becomes evident, and the pressure fluctuation in the volute shows different laws. The
pressure fluctuation at the downstream of the tongue is lower than that at the impeller outlet.
The fluctuation strength at the impeller outlet decreases gradually from the first to the eighth
sections.
30 30 30
Q/Q d=1.3
20 20 20
Q/Q d=1.52
Cp
Cp
Cp
10 Q/Q d=1.73 10 10
0 0 0
Cp
Cp
Q/Q d =1.73
10 10 10
0 0 0
Cp
10 Q/Q d =1.73 10 10
0 0 0
0.10 4 9
8
0.08 3 7
6
0.06 5
2
Cp
Cp
Cp
0.04 4
3
0.02 1 2
1
0.00 0 0
P1 P1
P2 P1
P2
P2
P3 P3 P3
P4 P4
P5 P4
P5
P5
P6 P6 P6
P7 P7 P7
P8 P8 P8
P9 P9 P9
0 6 12 NF 18 24 0 6 12 NF 18 24 0 6 12 NF 18 24
Q/Qd = 1.3 Q/Qd = 1.52 Q/Qd = 1.73
Fig. 13 Frequency domain of pressure fluctuation
The time domains of pressure fluctuation at P10‐P15 are shown in Fig. 14. The pressure fluc‐
tuation has six wave peaks under different working conditions, and the pressure fluctuation at
different monitoring points is caused by the interference of the tongue. The pressure fluctuation
strength increases with the increase of flow rate. The fluctuation strength weakens when the
distance between the monitoring point and the tongue increases. The influence of the tongue on
pressure fluctuation and the influence of jet‐wake structure at the impeller outlet decline when
the monitoring point approaches the wall surface facing the tongue. The pressure fluctuation
strength without cavitation close to the tongue at Q/Qd = 1.3 is significantly lower than that with
cavitation at the tongue at Q/Qd = 1.52 and 1.73. This finding reflects that the unsteady flow at
the tongue is complicated, and the changes in pressure distribution are intense after the occur‐
rence of cavitation. At actual operation, these conditions may trigger serious vibration noises,
thereby influencing the stable operation of the pump.
The frequency domains of pressure fluctuations at different monitoring points close to the
tongue under different working conditions are shown in Fig. 15. The dominant frequency under
working conditions is the blade passing frequency. The rapid increase in dominant frequency
amplitude caused by cavitation reflects the influences of cavitation development on the pressure
fluctuation strength close to the tongue. The pressure fluctuation at the downstream monitoring
point P1 is 0.41 of the dominant frequency amplitude under non‐cavitation condition. However,
it increases to 2.12 and 3.84 when Q/Qd = 1.52 and Q/Qd = 1.73, respectively. A strong pressure
fluctuation may be found at the downstream position of the tongue due to the development and
breakage of cavities. In accordance with the changes in dominant frequency amplitude under
different working conditions, the pressure fluctuation intensity declines gradually when the
monitoring point approaches the wall surface facing the separation tongue.
6 Q/Q d=1.3 6 6
4 Q/Q d=1.52 4 4
Cp
Cp
Cp
2 Q/Q d=1.73 2 2
0 0 0
‐2 ‐2 ‐2
‐4 ‐4 ‐4
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 0 60 120 180 240 300 360 0 60 120 180 240 300 360
P10 P11 P12
6 Q/Q d=1.3 6 6
4 Q/Q d=1.52 4 4
Cp
Cp
Cp
2 Q/Q d=1.73 2 2
0 0 0
‐2 ‐2 ‐2
‐4 ‐4 ‐4
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 0 60 120 180 240 300 360 0 60 120 180 240 300 360
P13 P14 P15
Fig. 14 Pressure fluctuation near the tongue
0.6 3.0 6
0.5 2.5 5
0.4 2.0 4
0.3 1.5 3
Cp
Cp
Cp
0.2 1.0 2
0.1 0.5 1
0.0 0.0 0
P10 P10 P10
P11 P11 P11
P12 P12 P12
P13 P13 P13
P14 P14 P14
P15 P15 P15
0 6 12 NF 18 24 0 6 12 NF 18 24 0 6 12 NF 18 24
Q/Qd = 1.3 Q/Qd = 1.52 Q/Qd = 1.73
Fig. 15 Frequency domain of pressure fluctuation of monitoring points near the tongue
5. Conclusion
In this study, an attempt is made to investigate the cavitation at the tongue of centrifugal pump at
overload conditions. By means of numerical computation and visualization measurement, un-
steady flow structures in cavitation zone were studied to associate with blade loading and pres-
sure fluctuation. From the present research following conclusions can be drawn:
• As the increase of flow rate, the shedding of the separated vortex lowers the static pres-
sure near the tongue. And the flow separation at the tongue brings dramatic pressure fluc-
tuation and strong shearing vortex which induce cavitation.
• At overload conditions, higher radical velocity and deviation of relative flow angle contrib-
ute to periodical variation of flow field near the tongue, which results in periodical cavita-
tion evolution. Thus, the frequency of the cavitation cloud shedding is equal to the blade
passing frequency.
• Cavitation at the tongue not only enhances the pressure fluctuation in volute, but also affects the
blade loading distribution: The pressure pulsation in the volute is consistent with the blade
passing frequency whether cavitation occurs or not, while the pulsation intensity increases
obviously after cavitation inception. From the first section to the eighth section of volute,
the pulsation intensity of impeller outlet decreases gradually.
The study showed that it is possible that the head drop at overload conditions is caused by
the appearance of cavitation at the tongue of volute, which may provide guidance for the optimi-
zation of the anti-cavitation performance of centrifugal pump. In future, more accurate visualiza-
tion measurement and vibration experiment can be conducted to investigate the cavitation phe-
nomenon at the tongue of casing.
Acknowledgement
This research was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC0810506) and the Key R&D Program of
Zhenjiang (SH2017049).
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