Preliminary investigation of centrifugal pump for fire engine

Abstract

This preliminary work deals with analytical, numerical and experimental investigation of centrifugal pump for fire engine. The pump was investigated experimentally and power curves as dependence of head on flow rate were carried out. Numerical research focused on finding of setup of numerical solver. All curves were compared, analysed and problematic places were identified. It was found that for very low backpressure, i.e. head coefficient, cavitation occurs around the propeller wheel and reduces maximum flow coefficient significantly. After modifying the wheel by sharpening leading edges of blades, or when rotation speed was increased, cavitation got even worse. Another issue is related with stator blades. It seems that stator blades work perfectly only in short range of regimes. Stator blades represent another resistance for low back pressure, while for higher back pressure, stator blades fail to decelerate the flow and increase static pressure. Several modification were suggested to increase performance of the fire engine.