A combined approach of inverse method and direct flow analysis is presented for the hydrodynamic design of gas-liquid two-phase flow rotodynamic pump impeller. The geometry of impeller blades is designed for a specified velocity torque distribution by treating the two-phase mixture as a homogeneous fluid under the design condition. The three-dimensional flow in the designed impeller is verified by direct turbulent flow analysis, and the design specification is further modified to optimize the flow distribution. A helical axial pump of high specific speed has been developed. To obtain a favorable pressure distribution the impeller blade was back-loaded at the hub side compared to the tip side. Experimental results demonstrate that the designed pump works in a wide flow rate range until the gas volume fraction increases to over 50% and its optimum hydraulic efficiency reaches to 44.0% when the gas volume fraction of two-phase flow is about 15.6%. The validity of design computation has been proved.

Issue Section:
Technical Papers
Keywords:
hydrodynamics, rotors, pumps, impellers, computational fluid dynamics, flow simulation, two-phase flow, blades, torque, rotational flow, mixtures, turbulence
Topics:
Blades, Computational fluid dynamics, Design, Flow (Dynamics), Fluids, Impellers, Pressure, Pump impellers, Pumps, Torque, Two-phase flow, Computation, Geometry, Turbulence, Suction
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 by American Society of Mechanical Engineers
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