Evaluation of Flow-Induced Dynamic Stress and Vibration of Volute Casing for a Large-Scale Double-Suction Centrifugal Pump

Abstract

The transient analysis was carried out to investigate the dynamic stress and vibration of volute casing for a large double-suction centrifugal pump by using the transient fluid-structure interaction theory. The flow pulsations at flow rate ranging from 60% to 100% of the nominal flow rate (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>Q</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>d</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>) were taken as the boundary conditions for FEM analysis of the pump volute casing structure. The results revealed that, for all operating conditions, the maximum stress located at the volute tongue region, whereas the maximum vibration displacement happened close to the shaft hole region. It was also found that the blade passing frequency and its harmonics were dominant in the variations of dynamic stress and vibration displacement. The amplitude of the dominant frequency for the maximum stress detected at 0.6<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>Q</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>d</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>was 1.14 times that at<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>Q</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>d</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>, lower than the related difference observed for pressure fluctuations (3.23 times). This study provides an effective method to quantify the flow-induced structural dynamic characteristics for a large-scale double-suction pump. It can be used to direct the hydraulic and structural design and stable operation, as well as fatigue life prediction for large-scale pumps.