Numerical study of the energy loss in the bulb tubular pump system focusing on the off-design conditions based on combined energy analysis methods

Longyue Sun, Qiang Pan, Desheng Zhang, Ruijie Zhao and Esch, B.P.M.(Bart) van

Energy, 2022, vol. 258, issue C

Abstract: The unsteady flow characteristics of the low-head bulb tubular pump highly affects the operation efficiency and stability of the whole system. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dominating loss area in a typical tubular pump using the combined energy analysis methods. The transient multi-condition flow through the pump system is simulated based on N–S equation integrating SST k-ω model. The power loss characteristics of each flow passage component are analyzed in terms of total pressure variation, entropy production and energy balance equation. The turbulent entropy generation power (PSD') in the entropy production and the turbulent kinetic energy production (PL3) of the energy balance equation are the primary source of power loss, indicating that the fully developed turbulent flow tends to generate considerable loss in the pump system, followed by the power loss of solid wall (PSW and PLW). The distribution of power loss in the impeller and diffuser was comprehensively exhibited and it was found that the undesirable flow patterns are mainly caused by blades and walls. The rim region in impeller domain with volume fraction of 15% induces the energy loss of approximately 45% due to the presence of solid wall and tip leakage vortex (TLV). Furthermore, the individual grid volume is considered to better locate and visualize regions with our great interest, and a number of typical vortex structures are identified under several flow rates showing that the positive attack angle is more likely to caused flow instability and energy loss at low flow rate condition.

Keywords: Bulb tubular pump; Numerical simulation; Hydraulic performance; Entropy production; Energy balance equation; Visualization analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544222016978
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:258:y:2022:i:c:s0360544222016978

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.124794

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().