Investigation of the Effect of the Stages Number, the Impeller Outlet Width, and the Impeller Outlet Angle on the Performance of an Industrial Electric Submersible Pump

Abstract

This study has investigated the effect of the number of stages, the blade outlet spacing, and the blade outlet angle of a selected industrial submersible pump on the pump performance. The main steps in the study are outlined below: Firstly, the operating characteristics in different stages of a selected industrial submersible pump were measured by the experiment. Following the measurements, the effects of two basic geometric parameters, such as impeller outlet width and impeller outlet angle on the pump performance were examined with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations verified by the experimental measurements. It was seen that the geometric parameters, which were considered in the simulations, changed the size of the time-dependent variables, but the flow structure did not. Another striking finding from the CFD simulations carried out is it has been observed that while geometric arrangements have a partial effect on the flow structure along with the pump, they cause a difference in the critical values on the basic variables that define pump performance, such as pressure.