Hydrodynamic Optimization for Design of a Submersible Axial-Flow Pump with a Swept Impeller

Youn-Sung Kim, Man-Woong Heo, Hyeon-Seok Shim, Bong-Soo Lee, Dong-Hwan Kim and Kwang-Yong Kim
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Youn-Sung Kim: FLUXYS Pump Company, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do 10847, Korea
Man-Woong Heo: Coastal Development and Ocean Energy Research Center, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Busan 49111, Korea
Hyeon-Seok Shim: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Korea
Bong-Soo Lee: Korea Testing Certification, Gunpo-si, Gyeonggi-do 15809, Korea
Dong-Hwan Kim: Coastal Development and Ocean Energy Research Center, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Busan 49111, Korea
Kwang-Yong Kim: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Korea

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 12, 1-17

Abstract: Submersible pumps are now in high demand due to the sporadic occurrence of recent torrential rains. The current study was carried out to investigate the hydraulic characteristics of a submersible axial-flow pump with a swept impeller and to optimize the impeller and diffuser shapes of the pump to enhance the hydraulic performance. Three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations were solved with the shear stress transport turbulence model. The governing equations were discretized using the finite volume method, and unstructured tetrahedral and hexahedral meshes were used in the grid system. The optimal grid system was selected through a grid dependency test. A performance test for the submersible axial-flow pump was carried out experimentally, and the results of the numerical analysis were validated against the experimental results. The hydraulic efficiency and the total head were used as objective functions. For the first optimization, a multi-objective optimization was carried out to simultaneously improve the objective functions through a hybrid multi-objective evolutionary algorithm coupled with a response surface approximation by varying the swept angle and pitch angle of the blades of the rotating impeller. The second multi-objective optimization was performed using two design variables, i.e., the inlet angle and the length of the diffuser vanes, to simultaneously increase the objective functions. Clustered optimum designs in the Pareto optimal solutions yielded significant increases in the objective function values as compared with the reference design.

Keywords: submersible axial-flow pump; sweep angle; pitch angle; diffuser inlet and outlet angle; diffuser length (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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