The Effect of Changes in Impeller geometry of Centrifugal Pump in Cavitation Phenomena

Many applications of centrifugal pumps in various industries have caused that the increasing of performance in these pumps are considered. Cavitation phenomenon is one of the essential problems in centrifugal pumps function. Changing the centrifugal pumps inlet geometry could be a good solution for reducing cavitation occurrence in impeller suction. For the investigation, the flow in impeller and volute of the pump has been simulated numerically by ANSYS-CFX commercial code. Finite volume method along with K-ωSST turbulence model has been utilized for numerical analysis. Rotating and stationary frames have been used respectively to analyze flow in impeller and volute, and the results have been coupled by frozen rotor. Different inlet positions have been investigated numerically. The H-Q curve of simulated pump has been compared with factual model of 65-200 pump of Pumpiran Company. Lower numerical error has increased certainty of obtained results. Results indicate that some of the inlet geometries of pump impeller have led to improvement of pump cavitation performance with a slight reduction in pump head.