Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Impeller Geometry Effect on the Centrifugal Pump Performance during Oil Pumping

Centrifugal pump performance severely drops during pumping viscous fluids. This reduction can be improved by altering the original impeller. Replacing the impeller of a pump is more cost effective in comparison to replacement of the whole of the pump. In the present study the effects of the blade outlet angle and width of impeller passage on the centrifugal pump performance when handling special oil has been investigated experimentally and numerically. The performance parameters of a centrifugal pump have been measured on a test rig when handling industrial oil as a viscous fluid. The three-dimensional flow in a centrifugal pump including original impeller and applied changes in geometry has been\ numerically simulated. The finite volume method has been used for the discretization of the governing equations, and the High Resolution algorithm has been employed to solve the equations. Also, the "k- ù SST" has been adopted as the turbulence model in the simulation. Numerical results have been compared with experimental results, and there is good agreement between these results. Finally,the improved impeller has been performed, and the performance diagrams of the pump have been demonstrated for impellers.