Suppression of Mixed-Flow Pump Instability and Surge by the Active Alteration of Impeller Secondary Flows

Abstract

An active method for enhancing pump stability, featuring water jet injection at impeller inlet, was applied to a mixed-flow pump. The stall margin, between the design point and the positive slope region of the head-flow characteristic, was most effectively enlarged by injecting the jet in the counterrotating direction of the impeller. The counterrotating streamwise vorticity along the casing, generated by the velocity discontinuity due to the jet injection, altered the secondary flow pattern in the impeller by opposing the passage vortex and assisting the tip leakage vortex motion. The location of the wake flow was displaced away from the casing-suction surface corner of the impeller, thus avoiding the onset of the extensive corner separation, the cause of positive slope region of the head-flow characteristic. This method was also confirmed to be effective for stabilizing a pump system already in a state of surge.