Effect of Splitter Blades on Performances of a Very Low Specific Speed Pump

Lilian Chabannes, David Štefan and Pavel Rudolf
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Lilian Chabannes: Victor Kaplan Department of Fluid Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Technická 2896/2, 616 69 Brno, Czech Republic
David Štefan: Victor Kaplan Department of Fluid Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Technická 2896/2, 616 69 Brno, Czech Republic
Pavel Rudolf: Victor Kaplan Department of Fluid Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Technická 2896/2, 616 69 Brno, Czech Republic

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 13, 1-13

Abstract: The usage of splitter blades to enhance the performances of low specific speed pumps is common practice. Based on experimental and numerical studies, the influence of the addition of one and two splitter blades is investigated on a very low specific speed pump to assess their impact not only on the performance characteristics but also on the losses in all pump domains. First, the main characteristic curves are discussed and it is shown that the usage of splitter blades enhances the head of the pump while not impairing its efficiency. Secondly, a detailed analysis of the losses in the pump reveals that splitter blades improve the flow in all parts of the pumps, but the volute. The flow at the impeller outlet shows that splitter blades largely benefit the slip factor and discharges a more blade-congruent flow in the volute. However, higher absolute velocity at the outlet of the impeller with splitter blades increases friction at the volute wall, as confirmed by the average wall shear stress in the different tested cases.

Keywords: low specific speed; numerical simulation; splitter blades; volute; centrifugal pump (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: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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