Investigation of two-phase flow in axial-centrifugal impeller by hydrodynamic modeling methods

Abstract

The article provides a methodology to study the flow in the wet part of the pump with fundamentally new axial-centrifugal impeller by methods of hydrodynamic modeling in the software package STAR CCM +. The objective of the study was to determine the normal and cavitation characteristics of the pump with a new type of wet part, as well as optimization of the geometrical parameters of the pump. The simulation results may be of interest to specialists in the field of hydrodynamic modeling, and for designers of such pumps. The authors also report production of a full length prototype of the pump in order to conduct further testing for the verification of the data in the article, primarily in terms of cavitation characteristics.