Experimental Investigation of Rotor-Stator Interaction in a Centrifugal Pump With Several Vaned Diffusers

Abstract

This paper describes an experimental investigation of rotor-stator interaction in a centrifugal pump with several vaned diffusers. Steady and unsteady diffuser vane pressure measurements were made for a two-dimensional test impeller. Unsteady impeller blade pressure measurements were made for a second two-dimensional impeller with blade number and blade geometry identical to the two-dimensional impeller used for the diffuser vane pressure measurements. The experiments were conducted for different flow coefficients and different radial gaps between the impeller blade trailing edge and the diffuser vane leading edge (5 and 8 percent of the impeller discharge radius). The largest pressure fluctuations on the diffuser vanes and the impeller blades were found to be of the same order of magnitude as the total pressure rise across the pump. The largest pressure fluctuations on the diffuser vanes were observed to occur on the suction side of the vane near the vane leading edge, whereas on the impeller blades the largest fluctuations were observed to occur at the blade trailing edge. However, the dependence of the fluctuations on the flow coefficient was found to be different for the diffuser vanes and the impeller blades; on the vane suction side, the fluctuations were largest for the maximum flow coefficient and decreased with decreasing flow coefficient, whereas at the blade trailing edge, the fluctuations were smallest for the maximum flow coefficient and increased with decreasing flow coefficient. Increasing the number of the diffuser vanes resulted in a significant decrease of the impeller blade pressure fluctuations. The resulting lift on the diffuser vanes was computed from the vane pressure measurements; the magnitude of the fluctuating lift was found to be larger than the steady lift.